Her New Beginning
by Kagome-Loves-Kouga
Summary: Kit knows she has no family, no friends, and nothing to gain by remembering what her mind has blocked from her. But how far will she go to survive when she gets trapped on the train with Billy and Rebecca? //Full Summary Inside// //OC//
1. The Horror Of Survival Beckons

**Her New Beginning**

_The door to safety is locked, and you can nevermore return._

_Now there is only fear to contend with. _

_Enter the survival horror._

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE: **This is basically me put into this. Under a false name, I assure you. But still, she will act exactly as I would, and remember this is how I see myself and such. I plan to keep her mostly separated from romance, and she will be sort of cold to certain characters. She won't really remember her life that will be detailed in the first chapter through the second, but will have vague feelings and moreover ghosting memories. She will also have no prior training—or should I say the amount of training I have. I can punch, kick, I'm a bit cautious and jumpy, and observant, I know how to shoot both a handgun and I presume my bb gun is similar to how a rifle works, so she'll have to figure it out. Well, enjoy!

**CHAPTER TITLE:** The Horror of Survival Beckons

* * *

**K.L.K- Welcome to my story!**

**Wesker-… Oh dear…**

**K.L.K- (dead-panned stare) What? Don't you enjoy stories like this?**

**Wesker- (mumbles something then goes to the Closet of Character's Rooms)**

**K.L.K-… (Whispers) Bastard… Turning his back on me like that… (Normal tone of voice) anyway, I hope this entertains you! I don't own Resident Evil.**

* * *

"Hey Kit! Get up, you lazy girl!" Her father jokingly yelled down the stairs, forcing the girl to jerk from sleep.

"What… Argh, that's right, it's Friday." She murmured. "Damn." That was even quieter so nobody but she could hear it. The fifteen year-old cracked her neck, rising off her bed a bit gracefully although she thought herself to be klutzy. "I'm up!" She yelled out her door.

"Wake me up in twenty minutes; we leave at six-fifty!" She grumbled but replied with an affirmative shout and nod although he couldn't see her, and closed her door with a slight _click_ then trudged over to where her clothes hung in a type of minor disarray.

As she perused her closet and rooted through the clothes messily strewn on her floor and the guest bed in her large-ish room, she couldn't help but let her mind stray off the mindless track of the morning.

She hadn't dreamt the last night. Again. She never usually did, but for some reason it disturbed her more than the first time it had happened, over four years ago.

Then it wandered to her father and his age; he was over half a century old, she knew that he would get older faster than many of her friend's parents did; as she slipped into her underclothing and reached for a plain black tee-shirt. She didn't feel like wearing anything bright today. She slipped on her loose jeans and then put on her studded, old belt with the scratched up belt buckle with a kanji for 'Kitsune' on it, hissing slightly when a wayward stud once again caught and sliced the pad of her thumb as she adjusted the strip of tough material.

Her hair was wavy and side parted so it fell over her left eye ever so slightly, and fell down to her lower hips, but had a certain sense of control, and she hadn't even brushed it yet. She combed through it with her fingers, and put on her black rimmed glasses. She both loved and hated the glasses. They were a necessity, and a pain. If she looked down for too long or sneezed, they would fall off her ears and to the floor.

She'd had them for around a year, and they fell to the floor again as she stooped to pick up a necklace to put on. The silvery chain was rather punky in style, because it was connected in the front by two handcuffs and the keys near the clasp actually did open them. She felt like wearing something that glittered at her throat today, she huffed slightly, as she retrieved her glasses from the floor and slid them back on.

"Damn things," She cursed softly. Without them she was a bit helpless. She couldn't read the board in school, and only saw people clearly when they were a few feet in front of her. Plus the migraines… she shuddered, then checked the time.

'_Six-twenty. Definitely time to go eat breakfast.' _She thought hollowly, slipping on some grey socks that had bright, neon-coloured lightning bolts in them, then slipping on her Air walk converse knock-offs, not even re-tying them in her mechanic routine.

She trudged up the stairs, kicking a cat that just wouldn't learn to quit trying to get into the basement softly, just a tap so it ran back upstairs. _'Rosita, I swear one of these days Dad's gonna lose it and throw you into the glass door instead of outside.'_ She _was_ a problem kitty. Always disrespectful, going to the bathroom right next to the litter box and clawing and head-butting way too hard.

She meandered over to the stove, getting out the saucepan that her grandmother had gotten her for Christmas. She had a bit of an addiction to packaged ramen, and the week that she'd stayed at her grandmother's the previous year, in 2009, she'd brought a few packs of ramen but hadn't gotten the chance to eat them although she nearly did. So her grandmother had gotten a saucepan with a see-through lid and it had a little place on the side that was perfect to drain water from her noodles.

As she walked into the bathroom, did her business, and then went to her bathroom after checking on the water, she let her mind wander. _'This is so boring… day, after day, after day of the same thing. It doesn't even help to change what I eat or how many times I eat. Get up, get ready, eat, grab book bag, go to school, ride the bus for an hour and do homework, come home, play video games or draw, sleep.'_ When she was younger, she used to be so full of energy and no day was the same, ever.

'_Where have those days gone?'_ She sighed, applying foundation to the dark circles under her eyes that never went away due to the paleness of her skin, and then rimmed her dark, warm brown eyes—that almost matched her red hair, oddly enough for some reason as her friends claimed—with eyeliner, and applied silvery eye shadow mixed with gold, just enough so her eyeliner wouldn't smudge into the crease of her eyelid, and swept mascara through her eyelashes; the black colour matching the dyed black tips on her hair.

Then she, sensing somehow the water must be positively boiling, went to the kitchen and surmised that her hunch had been right. She put the noodles into the pot and poked it with a fork a few times before looking at what type she'd blindly grabbed. Beef ramen. Huh. It was something that was never in low supply in her home, as it was her favourite.

She quickly grabbed a bowl then mixed the flavored powder into the noodles with only a minute amount of water, then went to the table and grabbed a can of diet mountain dew on her way there. She took a sip and only registered the coldness, not the flavor. It had been too many years of drinking it, and it was just like water if she wasn't focused on it.

As she ate she closed her eyes. Things had been rather quiet at school, and her parents usually worked. That only left the bus as a way to get home, and she was just happy she didn't have to ride the bus to her high school.

She checked the clock. Fifteen till six-fifty. She deposited her bowl in the sink numbly, and walked to her parents' doorway, peeking in. "Time to get up." If she didn't wake him up early, he'd be a grump.

He mumbled something and she shook her head, going to brush her teeth. She then considered how her body felt and moreover how her mood was.

She'd never felt so blank in the last two years, she groaned inwardly. She had felt this way a long time ago, when she was eleven or twelve. But she couldn't bring forth emotions as she usually did to prepare herself for the onslaught of the usual high school day.

Since she could not, the redhead dejectedly practiced them flawlessly in front of her mirror, making sure her smile found her eyes and looked natural, and that she could get a blank face on without looking too cold. That was essential. If she slipped into her stone-hard façade again, people would begin to question about her wellbeing and that would bring no good in her opinion.

She was the one who worried about and for others. Not them who worried about her. She knew this, going quickly down to her room during her train of thought's path. She never really thought about herself except in how she could help someone, perhaps playing a part in her own self-made script when she didn't want to wing it.

She sighed and pulled on her hoodie, not that she would be wearing it in school. When it was cold, she preferred it to warmth when she was like this. She remembered how she'd loved the winter when she was twelve as she slipped on her book bag and grabbed her purse that she only kept with her for appearances.

Then she turned off all the electronics in her room and then left, closing the door tightly. She'd gotten into the habit unconsciously since she'd started playing Resident Evil games, and had only recently acknowledged it. Perhaps her cautious nature had taken some warnings to it from the video games.

She loved them. She'd beaten them all countless times, except for five which in her opinion didn't count as a Resident Evil game. That and Wesker supposedly died in the end—she snorted. Right. She doubted the Tyrant-1000 would go down so very easily. A volcano and a few rockets was nothing to a tyrant, especially one as improved as Wesker.

Mr. X himself in Resident Evil 2's B scenarios had always come back from the smelting pot to trouble the characters after being 'killed' many a time, she mused, and an iron-melting pot was somewhat similar to a volcano. But Wesker… he was more refined, tougher, more in control.

She cursed herself. She'd spent the entire ride to school thinking about a man that didn't exist—Albert Wesker. It wasn't that she didn't think of him at times, but she thought about the other characters too, so much that it annoyed her on occasion. She knew it wasn't probably a good thing to do so but she also knew that little everyday things just triggered her thoughts about them.

Like when somebody would have to jimmy the lock on their locker because it refused to open correctly, she thought of Jill. When someone wore a vest, she was faintly reminded of Claire. When her friends would show her pictures of them and their hunting knives, she was reminded of Chris.

Whenever someone's high, squeaky voice of panic asked if she was okay when she tripped down some stairs, she was distinctly reminded of Rebecca, and whenever someone growled at her or looked at her cruelly, Wesker came to mind just a tad.

Whenever someone would be frightened of something truly pathetic or run off to leave her to do something on her own, Chickenheart Brad bubbled to the top of her mind, and whenever someone was protective of her—or she over them—she would think of the rookie cop Leon.

But it didn't matter. They didn't exist, she reminded herself sourly, so it only validated her claims of slight insanity. She snorted slightly, waving hollowly to her friends as she sat on the large stage in front of the humongous cafeteria. She had_ never_ claimed to be sane, not even to her parents, but they all knew nobody was strictly sane throughout their lives.

"Kit!" A voice rose over the murmur of the early-morning crowd, and she brightened. A lukewarm sensation tickled throughout her chest.

"Erin! Hey, Erin!" She waved, and the girl soon got there, pushing guys at least a foot taller than her out of the way on her path to her friend.

Ah, Erin. Her best friend whom was almost like her twin. Hell, she even had her own bed in Kit's room, and knew all the workings of the redhead's home.

"What's up?" The brunette asked, her recently dyed hair making her sea-foam green eyes pop, the lip piercing glittering and her ear piercings shining in the light.

"Oh, nothing." she passed off, and she accepted it with only a moment of Kit's practiced smile. The redhead felt worry knot at her insides. '_If I can trick my best friend, am I too far gone?'_

She suddenly was slid off the stage by Jesse as he arrived; him pulling at her legs like a small child would although compared to her he was a giant. "_Caffeine?_" He held his hands out and the Masagobi rolled her eyes and passed him a pop from her backpack. It had become routine to do so, after all.

As she stood and chatted among those who had arrived, a swift smack was landed onto her bottom and she yelped a bit, then turned around and grinned wolfishly. "Hiya, Angel!" she waved and hugged the other redhead tightly and the green-eyed girl went off to gallivant with her other friends.

Kit smiled and talked with all her closest, dearest friends, but was unsettled, and they could tell it. Something bad was going to happen today… Something terrible.

--

She tapped her mechanical pencil on her desk, ignoring the history teacher's pointless blathering. _'Yes, we got the point of the lesson nearly half an hour ago. We've no need of this pointless lecture, you dumbass.'_ She cursed him inwardly, as he was actively recounting a battle.

As she was sitting nearby a window which was opened with the warm breeze, she stiffened when she heard the distinct groan that she'd heard just the other night as she had played her Playstation1 console. _"Uuungh…"_

Her eyes darted around the classroom briefly. She'd been the only one to hear it. _'Maybe I'm crazier than I previously surmised.'_ She thought dourly, and went back to doodling a handgun.

"_Uuungh…"_ She felt alarm spike in her throat. Usually she only imagined the noises once, and they were gone. They almost never repeated… unless… _'No, no, zombies aren't real. The T, T-veronica, G and Progenitor viruses are all fake, and so are Los Plagas. Get a grip on yourself, Kit!'_ She took some deep, calming breaths, gripping her pencil. She glanced around again, quickly. Nobody had noticed the discrepancy in her usually bored manner.

"And then the general—…" The bell rang, and the teacher sat down with a dejected face. "Read the chapter for homework." He sighed, and we all rushed out of there except Kit.

"Ah, that was a spirited lecture," She spoke pleasantly, even though she didn't like the lectures; He had been so very into it and had been doing a good job if you were interested in the war they were studying. Not that it wasn't interesting at all, but she preferred revolutions and rebellions, as well as the eras where the arts became more refined, or ancient history.

"Yes… I suppose." He mused. "Kit, is there something wrong?"

Shock showed on her face but was smoothed over with assurance. "No, nothing's wrong. Have a good night, 'Kay?" With that she left for her next class. _'I've gotta step up my façade, he caught something.'_

"_Attention, Students!" _The PA system in the hallways crackled to life, booming. _"Seventh period today is cancelled as the teachers must hold a meeting. Please behave!" _The voice was rushed, and all the teachers in the hallways disappeared as if someone had yelled 'Free doughnuts!' at the top of their lungs and had held a flashing arrow pointed towards the fried pastries.

Kit sighed as others whooped and she headed for her locker, dumping off her textbooks. The meeting would carry on till the end of the day, she was sure.

As she passed a glass doorway, she halted momentarily in her bored gait. _'…A black van? I don't remember seeing that car around.'_ And the fact it was surrounded by a few other unfamiliar cars made her gut twist.

'_I better find my friends. I don't like this one bit.'_

--

As she stood in the deserted classroom with her friends, she wrung her hands as she looked out the open window. Something was happening in this small town and she didn't like it. She kept hearing those _noises_; the ones that she knew were attributed to zombies. And she even heard the faint screech of hunters, the wail of lickers, and growling of cerberi or perhaps it was just dogs.

Her home town was unnaturally quiet and still. It was usually a bustling village by now, she frowned.

"Hey Kit!" Erin looked at her, holding her cell phone awkwardly. "Mom sent us a message…"

As she played it Kit's eyes widened. _'no…'_

"_Charles, Charles! Are you al—…"_ It was punctuated by a faint _"The bastard bit me, Jess, of course I'm not alright! Urgh, why is it so itchy?" _and a frustrated growl of anger and pain.

"…Father?" Kit whispered. Erin was just beginning to grasp what she had said.

"_Listen, Kit, I'll be down soon, alright? Something weird's going on there, I can't get ahold of your grandparents. Or Morgan's mother and father… I'll be down in a few minutes to get you if I can, sweetie, I don't want you to be down there."_

_Click._

She shook her head, eyes wide and bright with the spark of realization. It made an insane type of sense. The moans, the noises, _the teacher's calling the meeting._ Especially the black car and other unfamiliar ones. She turned to her friends. "This isn't good."

She saw her parent's car drive up to the window, and her mother got out, staunching the flow of blood from a bite on her hand as she held the handgun. Kit's eyes widened. "Mom, what are you—!"

"Kit, take the gun." She said in a low voice. "Your father… he's in shock." She could see him convulsing in the car. "I've got to get him to the hospital."

The young redhead's stomach dropped. "Mom, no! I…"

"Stay inside, Kit, the town's a mess. Some kind of… Cannibal disease, people are eating other people and even some of the pets are getting it. And there are these strange monsters…"

She shook her head, hugging the weight of the gun in her hand. "Mom, I can't take this! They'll put me in jail!" She protested weakly.

"The school announced that the students have to protect themselves. They aren't letting anyone in or out of Leighton. I'm taking a big risk just standing here, and I even have a visitation pass."

"Don't take him to the hospital! It'll spread, you can't…" She protested, but she watched as her mother drove off.

"Oh, this is fucking _perfect_!" She growled, frightening her friends.

"What?" Erin asked.

"Remember Resident Evil?" Kit asked, revealing the gun her mother had passed to her, and she shut the window tightly. _'Not like it'll stop crows… Or anything…' _She felt her inner anime character sweatdrop, as she turned back to her friends.

"Yea…" The brunette spoke slowly, eyes on the gun in Kit's right hand, and her mind processing whatever the hell had just happened.

Kit smirked dismally, without any humor in her hardened eyes. "Well, I hope you weren't kidding when you said you would be able to kill zombies in real life."

Just then a freaking _Cerberus_ smashed through the window she had just closed, and she jumped out of the way, biting her lower lip.

"Aww, Jackson, come here boy…" James held his hand out to the Rottweiler, missing the protruding ribs and the way the dog had large patches of skin missing.

"James, no!" Before Kit could fire, James's neck was smashed in the Cerberus's jaws, spraying blood. The teen died with only a look of shock and a gurgle before his throat was completely ripped out by the infected canine, neck broken, blood spilling onto the floor and the scent of copper pennies spreading through the air.

She pointed the gun at the dog, holding her ground fiercely. _'Just point and spray just point and spray. _God_ I wish I had some ammo!' _She winced every time she fired. She also wished her mother had brought the protective earmuffs but oh well.

That could be a deadly mistake in this type of situation. She'd deal with the ringing ears later. The noise out in the hallways—if any people were even out in the hallways or just playing televisions insanely loud, they could hear several channels blaring at once right then, they wouldn't have heard it and thought anything of it. Most likely they were just figuring out something was amiss in the small town.

"Kit, what are you…!" Erin trailed off, Kit's serious face looking at the dog, and she finally saw how it wasn't normal. "Oh. Oh my god." The slightly tanned skin of her twin-like friend grew pale and a bit green before she swallowed and realized what was happening and that it was _actually happening_.

"Grab anything you can use as a weapon." Kit spoke lowly, and they followed the order without question, shocked by James's death and moreover how she was apparently taking it. Hah. It seems Kit was the Wesker of the group, although she definitely drew the line at being a traitor.

"Where do we go?" Taylor asked softly, glasses being pushed up reflexively.

"Does anyone know alternate routes that go out of the school—then Leighton itself? We need to get as far away as we can, pronto." She must scare them, she mused, with her blankly determined face and fiery eyes. She tied up her hair and braided the ponytail, making sure it wouldn't come undone.

"There are the windows, you know." Kenneth spoke slowly, pointing.

"Yeah, with Cerberi and crows, maybe even zombies, Lickers and Hunters just waiting for us there." She replied darkly.

"We could just walk out the front door," Nathan suggested, ever the brain.

"No good." The Masagobi shook her head. "I saw some strange cars out in the parking lot. Not Ohio license plates, either, and so they're not from around here, and it's the wrong time of year for tourists, thankfully, otherwise this would be a gigantic mess."

Erin nodded, prodding the dog that was still twitching with her foot, making sure it was completely deceased this time.

She tapped her foot in contemplation. "Besides, why do you think the teachers did something as drastic as call a meeting and leave us to our own devices?" She spoke morosely and pointedly.

"They…" Kim turned pale, almost making her beach blonde hair look like dirty blonde.

"They probably left us here to die and escaped by themselves." She spoke tonelessly now, an absolute tone that they'd never heard from her before. "Or, they've barricaded themselves in the teacher's lounge to await a rescue that won't come."

"Why won't it come?" The pudgy, black haired boy asked, and Kit pushed her glasses up with two fingers irritatedly.

"Because. We're in a viral biohazard situation, and this is most likely the T-virus and kami help us if the G-virus is involved. Same with the Progenitor virus."

"How do you know this? Are you…A traitor?" Sarah asked, and the redhead of the group growled lowly. "How else would you know this stuff?" Kit grasped her by the throat to a wall, eyes driving into the bright blue as she made sure she wasn't strangling the girl, just making sure she knew who was in charge.

Sarah struggled against her rage-fueled restraint as the other's cried _"Kit! _What the hell!" Sarah, seeing the dark intent in Kit's eyes, went limp and whimpered.

'_Good, she got the message.' _The slightly savage wrought Kit's mind with a dark nature she'd never really experienced fully; and she filed it away for later… if there _was _a later.

"I am _NOT_ A traitor!" Kit barked harshly. "Never call me that." She released the brunette. "If you must know, it's because I'm such an _obsessed freak_ as you've called me about Resident Evil. It's more of a hobby, dolts." She spoke with annoyance, but calmed herself, her fingers tapping the handle of the gun she held carefully still. "All the info's in the games."

"Can you get us through this?" Jesse asked, for once looking serious and a bit scared.

"I'll try my fucking hardest, alright?" She snapped. "But this shit isn't supposed to be real. None of it."

"Then what the hell? It is?" Kim asked fearfully, pale eyes scared.

"It might be, but I think we would have heard of a Raccoon City in the Arklay Mountains being turned into a radioactive crater back in 1998," Kit mused. "So that couldn't have been real. Umbrella is also obviously not real, as it was supposed to be a multi-_billion_ dollar industry that made basically _everything_, but there's no mentions of it I remember or that Mom and Dad have commented on. So I don't think Umbrella exists. Therefore none of the characters exist. This makes no sense…"

"Indeed." Nathan nodded.

"Bish, please." Kit smirked and waved her hand in front of her a bit flamboyantly, they all getting a hollowed chuckle from that as she dropped it back to her side, getting accustomed and comforted by the weight of the handgun.

"Okay, what do we _not_ do?" Erin asked. She had played the games too but the only thing that stuck in her mind were the puzzles, directions and mazes.

"First off, close doors tightly whenever you leave a room, hopefully ensuring most Zombies cannot follow us or take over rooms we've cleared."

"Check." Goodness, she was writing them down.

"Two, no bathrooms."

Derek raised his hand that didn't have a desk leg in it.

"Yes?" Kit sighed.

"Even if we have to go _really, really bad?_" He spoke nervously, and a few others squirmed, being psyched out into thinking they might have to go. Sarah's overly preppy face was contorted with slight panic as she prodded her tummy.

"Nope." She replied simply. "They're a bad idea. All those places for infected corvedai to hide… Plus it's like a cursed place; they'll always find a way to kill you in a bathroom. Horror movie cliché, but still it has some purchase in this situation."

"Three?" Erin asked.

"Right. Three, no matter what you do, the zombies are no longer your friends. You can't bring them back. No mercy to the infected, remember that. I won't have you guys dying over something so needless when I have no bullets to spare." She tapped the gun. "Four nine millimeter parabellum rounds gone into that Cerberus. That leaves eleven rounds." She tapped the barrel off her temple gently in a gesture that meant _Think about it_, and her hand dropped to her side.

"Got it." The brunette hummed.

"Hey…" Kimberly asked, piping up. "Melee weapons strictly then?"

"Yup." Kit nodded in an affirmative response. "Four… If you hear raggedy breathing on the ceiling or in a vent, run AWAY from it _slowly_, or meet the creature, get it on the ground, stand still, then run the hell away before your neck's sorely missing your cranium."

"Lickers are here?" Erin asked as she wrote the information down. "Shit."

Kit placed her hand on Erin's shoulder, staring into her friend's eyes sadly, and the brunette stared back with the same look. Not everyone would escape these horrors intact, sane, or even alive. They knew the full extent of that; some of the nicest characters in the games had died because of Umbrella's viruses. Steve Burnside, William and Annette Birkin, and the majority of the S.T.A.R.S team of Raccoon City. Even though they were fictional, they still died unneedingly, and would have lived long lives had it not been for the viruses. Both were mentally preparing themselves for the scarring this incident would leave.

Kit snapped out of it first, leaving her friend to watch her actions. "Alright. Obviously, the school hasn't been infected yet, hopefully, because I don't hear zombies pounding on the door for flesh."

Kenneth and Jesse looked back and forth, and the tall, dull-brown haired one hugged her suddenly, making her squeak. "I'm going to protect you!"

_SMACK!_ Her palm connected with his cheek after she had squirmed from his grasp. "No you are _not_, Jesse. Right now, I'm telling you, all of your lives are yours and to not worry about me. Erin, you've played Resident Evil! You're my second in command should I die." That shocked the viridian-eyed girl.

"But the school isn't infected yet," Sarah pointed out weakly, rubbing her throat still.

"You'll be surprised how quickly it probably will be, and we're getting to the barricades they've likely set up at the edges of the town." She sighed. "Five; do NOT get bitten, and if you are either tell us and vacate the group or we will find out and leave you. There's no cure we have access to, and I'm pretty sure whoever's behind this won't give us. We're useless; expendable to them. Whoever _they_ may be." Erin scribbled number five down.

She looked them over. _'If even half of us make it I'll eat a freaking hat! No ketchup.'_ She spoke vindictively in her mind, sarcasm dripping from every inwardly uttered word.

"'Kay, got it!" Erin spoke cheerfully for the situation and put the memo in her pocket.

Kit nodded then cracked her neck and fingers resolutely. "Alright, conceal your weapons; we're going through the halls." She ordered coldly, and she slid the gun into her pocket. At best it would look like she'd stuffed a wallet and a cell phone into it, and she put her hoodie on over that.

'_I'll be damned if I'm gonna become one of those flesh eating freaks because I didn't have my arms covered,'_, and she grabbed a desk leg as her melee weapon, sliding it into her sleeve and making sure It would be mostly hidden and she could slide it out of the five-or-six sizes too big hoodie. _'This'll never work.'_

All of a sudden the power was cut out, and the generator popped on with only about a fourth of the lights, making it extremely dark in spots.

"Great." Kit whispered, then glanced to the window warily as a screech of a hunter made her jump slightly. She was starting to get more and more used to those noises being out here in the real world. _'Why the hell haven't they noticed that before?'_ She thought as the males whispered fearfully and the girls shrieked a bit or stiffened. "Move out. I don't trust that window."

As they left Kit felt a chill run down her spine. There were a few, tightly knit groups of teens, but far less than she believed there should be. She ventured out before giving a signal they perceived correctly as 'go' and they all exited the deserted classroom, closing the door which locked behind them, their backpacks resting on their backs, emptied of all the schoolwork, textbooks, and unnecessary items.

'_The door to safety is locked, and you can nevermore return.'_ Kit thought in her mind, the messages that always appeared on the games before you truly took control of the character coming to her conscious. _'Now there is only fear to contend with. Enter the survival horror.'_

A hand on her shoulder made her jump, but two taps followed it. Obviously a sentient person, and she turned to see Erin's worried face.

"I'll follow your orders, _Captain."_ She winked, trying to get her serious-faced friend to laugh, and Kit snorted.

"If I'm a captain, then Ashley's not annoying as shit." And with that inside joke, they moved through the halls and Commons Room to the front doors just to see if they were truly locked or not.

Kit tried them once. "Damn. No luck."

A scream erupted from a few hallways over, and she stiffened as everyone else was scared shitless. "Uh-oh. Not good…"

Sarah raised her hand, trembling and the other hand still pressing her stomach worriedly. "C-can I go to a bathroom please?" She squeaked.

"Did I not just say 'No bathrooms' a little while ago?" Kit asked icily. But she rolled her eyes, and pointed to the bathroom that was closest to the front doors. "We'll move on. If you die, it's your own damned fault. Catch up later if you can." She felt a bit sick to her stomach—she didn't want anyone to die but as soon as she'd gotten a vague feeling of what was happening, she knew many; even she; may and would die before this was even close to over. Since Sarah, a girl who had no knowledge of fighting or the infected or viruses was going off on her own and into a _bathroom_ no less, she surmised the chance of survival of the preppy brunette was next to zero.

"K-kay!" She practically shouted, and ran into the bathroom.

"We're not leaving her, really, _are_ we?" Kimberly admonishingly asked, blue eyes shocked and her hands quickly tying her shoulder-length mousy brown straight hair into a tail as she met Kit's saddened, regretful gaze. "Oh." She mused that Kit didn't want to but she would do whatever she had to, to get the majority of them out alive. Smart, but probably a hard decision. "Okay."

"Let's move." The murmured order was followed, and after they checked the office door even though the entire large place was dark, they moved to the Study hall area and started towards B-hall.

* * *

**K.L.K- Alright the first chapter ends here and the second chapter will begin where this left off, with poor little Sarah.**

**Claire- (shocked) does… does she actually exist? If so you're crueler than I thought you to be.**

**K.L.K- (shakes head) No, she doesn't exist. And I'm simply an analytically, logically minded girl. The **_**character**_**, Kit, is reflecting that in her hard decision to leave Sarah behind in the bathroom to catch up later, even at the risk of the girl's death.**

**Chris-… I uh, I see.**

**K.L.K- Alrighty then, please review!**


	2. Death and Cowardice Makes Her Sick

**Her New Beginning **

_The door to safety is locked, and you can nevermore return._

_Now there is only fear to contend with. _

_Enter the survival horror._

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE: **Welcome to the second chapter! If you have a better title for this story, please put it in your review. Anyway, in this chappie, we see what happens to Sarah and the school is tainted with the infection. Perhaps a few more of her friends will meet their untimely and inevitable deaths as they continue through the school to get to the room the teachers went to for the meeting, which will be a rather remote room, and _then_ they'll try to escape Leighton? My muse is _rather_ unpredictable, after all… Not to mention they'll find a new weapon in the book bag of a friend. Let's get this started!

**CHAPTER TITLE:** Death and Cowardice Makes Her Sick

* * *

**K.L.K- Meh… I love this story. (Smiles) Don't you guys?**

**James-… (Isn't talking to her based on the fact he was the first to be killed off)**

**K.L.K- Oi! It was a necessary sacrifice! Sheesh… And the reason some of my friends aren't in here will be explained as well.**

**Jill- (breathes a sigh of relief) Good; I thought you'd intentionally left a plot hole.**

**K.L.K-... Shut up, you… and I have far too many friends to write in successfully, without a total overload. I had to change one of the names because I have two friends named Kim, so the one that's my age got her name lengthened to Kimberly for this story… Alright, onto the second chapter!**

* * *

"Damn that Kit." Sarah complained, bright blue eyes and pink glossed lips pouty as she caressed her neck. There was a slight bruise on the tender flesh even though Kit hadn't pushed that hard on her windpipe. "She's such a bitch. _Do this, do that, I'm not a traitor_," She mocked to the mirror, and then her tummy grumbled under her shirt, stress putting her digestive system into overload. She _had_ always been sensitive to stress, she sniffed indignantly, holding her tummy as she tried to think if she should stay in the bathroom or say to hell with it and catch up with the others.

A muffled scream once again tore through her heart and the school's halls and she yelped then ran into one of the stalls, dropping her jeans on the way in. She had to REALLY go _now _that the scream and stress had gotten to her.

After she was finished she saw the foggy reflection of herself in the stainless steel door of the toilet stall. She had always perfected herself to be bubbly and cheery to a point, even nasty to those she felt threatened by. Kit only tolerated her nowadays.

Her light skinny jeans, pink converse, pink tee-shirt and heart pendant necklace clearly displayed she was a girly-girl. Her unblemished skin and face, and flawless, even a bit overdone makeup constituted to that fact as well.

She stood up, pulled her pink and white heart underwear up then her jeans naturally followed, and she placed a hand on the latch to open the metal door.

She jumped a little when she heard the door to the bathroom open, as well as one of the stalls, but there were other people in the school, she reminded herself. Perhaps Kit had sent someone for her!

With that doubtful hope in her heart, she rushed out of the stall—and was met with the terrifying visage of an odd-looking person looming ever closer, dragging their right foot. "H-Hey Alexis!" She greeted the blonde chipperly, but sensed something was wrong as the other girl's head rolled to the side, the blue eyes obscured by a film of white. "Alexis? …It's me, Sarah!"

"_Uuungh_…" Alexis moaned throatily.

"What……" Sarah unknowingly backed herself nearer to the exit.

"_Don't get bitten!"_

The warning flashed through her mind. One bite and she was a goner. She kept backing up until she bumped into someone, and she felt a hand on her shoulder. Smiling, she turned her head…

Only to see the zombified face of Johnny, an extremely tall guy who had a booming laugh and was increasingly popular with the ladies. She shrieked as he bent down, mouth agape as his lips touched her shoulder, leaving a bloody stain on the pink fabric, before she ducked out of his grasp, and forgetting Alexis was there in all her zombified glory, pushed herself away from the infected male and into her undead friend.

_Chomp!_ The pearly whites of the blonde punctured the side of her neck, and she knew then that if she'd just used the bathroom then ran the hell away from this place instead of being vain about her neck, this wouldn't have happened.

Her scream pierced the silence, and she fell to the floor, holding her gushing neck wound as she pushed herself to a wall, under a sink, trying to hide from the two zombies. _'I'm infected. I hate you, Kit.' _Her eyes grew fiery with hate for the redhead. If it wasn't for her, she would still be living a happy life! If only Kit had stopped her, she wouldn't have died in a bathroom, at the hands of her infected friends.

As they descended upon her form, she closed her eyes, and then screamed out "I FUCKING HATE YOU, KIT!" Before her throat was ripped out and the zombies ripped into her gut, blood spilling across the speckled flooring as her internal organs flopped out. A nice, fresh feast for the infected corvedai, whom of which started to feed.

--

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_aaaaaaah_!_"_

It echoed through the hallways, and Kit winced. It had sounded like Sarah, and she could only guess—even though she didn't really need to nor want to—what had happened to her acquaintance-like friend.

Everyone halted in their progression through B-hall, weaving around the tightly-knit groups of whispering students, some of whom obviously didn't feel too well judging by their paler than usual faces and how some of them were holding their stomachs. The group looked at each other nervously as Kit kept her thinly veiled saddened gaze on the tiled floor.

"That sounded like Sarah, Kit." Kimberly spoke somberly for once.

"…Yes. Yes it did." Kit replied hollowly, and gestured with a nod of her head towards the end of B-hall, where it intersected D-hall and N-hall; Which N-hall was short and it intersected an exit that branched off from the cafeteria. Beyond that A-hall connected to B-hall by a short, four room hall that had two large bathrooms and a water fountain that was labeled C-hall, and on the second floor all of the halls were named T.

'_I hate how the School's hallways are so interwoven. There's not a single place that isn't a dead end that you don't have to worry about something coming behind you and killing you.' _She scowled. Even though the layout of the halls made it easier to get around should a hall be partially blocked off, it sure as hell wasn't such a good thing in this situation.

"Let's get moving." With that uttered sentence, they resumed their rather quick pace. The stairs in D-hall were near the entrances to the cafeteria, Kit realized. She did _not_ want to go near there, but… They were the closest, and not to mention if they were chased up the stairs they had two ways to go should the enemies be quicker than they could anticipate.

And that very may well happen, she mused darkly. Viruses constantly mutated, and thusly so did their properties. No strain would be the same, and if the T-virus had mutated beyond her expectations… She shook her head slightly as they reached the intersection, hearing a crashing noise far behind them.

The redhead stiffened as the others gasped. _'Crows, Cerberi, zombies, Lickers or even Hunters, I don't know and I don't fuckin' care!'_ She decided quickly in her mind. "Let's move! Don't even look into the cafeteria… Just keep on moving up the stairs, we'll seal the doors off there." She hissed lowly, and they all nodded before moving in a neat group, Kit in the front as they jogged towards the stairs.

"_Kim!"_ A cracking voice called, the male tone screaming in pain. Kit saw Kim tense, her blue eyes wide.

"Kim, no. Don't do it. No matter what, if he's bitten, he's lost to us!" Kit sputtered, seeing Kim's scared face turn to grim resolve. That had been the blonde's boyfriend's voice, the one guy that Kim had been with for months. "Don't sacrifice your life for silly teenage love unless you think it through!" She tacked on that last sentence.

"…But I do love him." The blonde spoke quietly, and dropped her backpack before Kit was able to stop her. She then dodged all the other's concerned hands, ignoring their shouts of 'Stop!', and dashed towards the doors that sealed the cafeteria off from the halls. Before another word was uttered, both were sealed, and the noise of grinding metal and locks from the other side clearly spoke volumes on how far Kim had truly thought it through.

She'd broken the clasps and locks on the door, rendering them as fully useful barricades between them and the masses of people, and they heard the tinkling of glass soon enough, from the large rotunda that served as an entrance to the cafeteria.

Kit closed her eyes and punched the door, half catching the scared attentions of the few students left in the halls, that hadn't dodged into the classrooms by now. "Shit." She then straightened her shirt and looked up the stairs determinedly. "She won't have died in vain." She spoke quietly, to herself almost, and the others nodded and murmured affirmative responses before following her lead up the stairs.

"At least she sealed off the cafeteria. That buys us a hell of a lot of time." Erin acknowledged, and her redheaded friend nodded thoughtfully, overcoming the sadness radiating from the group.

"Yeah. And not to mention those doors would have to be broken off their hinges to be bypassed. Anyway," She quickly decided to change the subject. "We have to keep moving." As they moved into the first T-hall, closinng the doors behind them and quickly jogging through the hallway to the end. Kit turned towards the windows, narrowing her eyes distrustfully, before a scooting noise in one of the rooms in the short hallway behind her caught her adrenaline-heightened senses. She pointed towards the door and tried it.

"Damn. It's locked." She rolled her eyes. "What a _shocker_." She spoke dryly, and some of her friends managed a soft, half-heartfelt chuckle.

She took the desk leg from her sleeve. "It's no use hiding them anymore, the school's gonna be crawling with monstrosities soon." She informed them, and they revealed their weapons as she took a hairpin from Taylor, then bent it a little and clicked it around in the lock for a few moments before getting it to click open. She bent the hairpin back and put it on her shirt collar—you never knew when it would be useful, she thought with a slight shrug.

She opened the door, desk leg held high, ready to brain or at least whack anything that could come at her. What her eyes were met with made her disgusted.

A pile of corpses lay in the corner, heads cracked open and necks broken, and a window was cracked open, the black-feathered fowl lay dead in small pools of red, chunky, already pre-coagulated blood. At least they were all fully dead, she mused.

She took a calculative glance around the room and her mouth turned downward at the teachers who were left. They were cowering under desks, a few of the braver ones had slightly bloodied desk legs in their hands and one even had a paper cutter's blade they'd ripped from the machine. Or perhaps they'd loosened the screw.

"Mrs. Coon, Mr. Blender." She greeted the two who were standing. "And also to you." She pointedly glared at the hiding teachers, most of whom she knew and had admired. "Why are you up here?" She let an eyebrow rise on the brow of her cold face, and a slight sneer of distaste found her lips. "The teacher's lounge is downstairs, didn't you know?" The sneer turned into a cold, angry smirk when the teachers under the desk shied away from her and whimpered.

"Kit. You're… alive." Mrs. Coon spoke out, straightened black hair and hazel eyes a welcome sight, had it been any other day.

"Yes. No thanks to you cowards." The redhead ground out. "And it's useless just staying here, hiding…" She cocked her head at the way the teaching staff was confused. She almost enjoyed their somehow delicious confusion and fear, but stopped herself. _'Don't be another Wesker, goddamn it.'_ "Didn't you know? One of my friends foolishly sacrificed herself to seal off the cafeteria. And we closed the doors at the top so no infected corvedai would be able to get up here through there…"

Gasps ran through the teachers and she saw a few cry.

"Who was it?" Mr. Blender asked quietly.

"Kim." She spoke. "Beach-blonde hair, pale skin, blue eyes…" She listed off the details. "Sarah Friedan's most likely deceased. She left the group and went to a bathroom, and hasn't caught up yet. And James Mullen's dead too. He was the first. A Cerberus—an infected dog—came through one of the first floor windows. We _barely_ were able to kill it."

"How do you know what that thing was called, Kit?" Mrs. Coon asked, trembling.

"I found a file. It blew into the window after the cerberi was dead. A total coincidence." She passed off the lie easily, and the teachers ate it up. Her friends kept quiet, because she'd sent them a glance that told them to shut their yaps. "What happened to them?" She gestured with her head towards the pile of bodies.

"They were infected with the cannibal disease. They were complaining of their stomachs hurting, and they got pecked a lot by the crows that broke the window." Mr. Blender answered.

"Ah. I see." Something _very_ familiar caught her eye, and it made her see red at the edges of her vision with the realization of what exactly it was. A familiar hoodie, stained with blood, was half-showing underneath one of the fatter teacher's corpses, and she unflinchingly went over and pulled on the fabric, pulling the body of one of her fellow students out from the pile. "…Whellic." She acknowledged him by his last name. Poor Alfie. "Why did he die?" She asked, fingering the mostly concealed bulge in her pocket, trying to calm herself down.

"He came with us, and he shielded a lot of us from the crows." The male, braver teacher spoke. "His backpack's over there… We didn't feel right to touch his stuff."

She closed his eyes, seeing his smashed in head and the deep pecking wounds all over his face, one of his optical sensors ruined, the lid punctured as well. "…I see." She spoke, voice strangled a bit before she stood and breathed deeply, going over to the backpack. She threw it to Jesse, who dropped his shoulder bag—which was rather useless as it couldn't hold that much—on the floor as he awkwardly held the carrying device. "He died bravely. But you, those of you cowering, make me sick. Had you helped the students out of here, it would have bettered all of our chances for survival." She spoke coldly. "Now many of us will die due to you acknowledging your fear in favor of protecting the students."

"Kit," one of the teachers who were huddled spoke.

"No. Listen. Your cowardice makes me sick. And why are you hiding here? Waiting for a rescue?"

She waited for an answer, but the silence proved her assumption.

"Well, there isn't going to be one." Some of the huddled personnel burst into tears. "The entire village is barricaded. All I can hope for is to help get my friends out alive."

"…What about you?" Mrs. Coon asked quietly, wiping her weeping eyes.

"I don't give a crap about myself." She answered truthfully. "I only love and care about my friends right now. My parents are infected and on their way to the hospital, where the infection of the virus will spread easily. My grandparents are likely dead. In fact, everyone in town is staring into the very face of death due to the virus. I just want my friends to live, and I'll give everything of myself to hopefully insure that they do." In her mind she whispered, _'But I will save myself, if that is the only option. No needless, possibly preventable deaths._'

They all teared up at her speech. The emotions in her eyes and on her face showed she was telling the truth.

"Kit…" Mr. Blender spoke sadly, and then held out the paper cutter blade, he handle covered in a soft rubber grip. "In exchange for your desk leg." He commented lightheartedly, even though it was dragged down by the situation.

She nodded and traded him. "Thank you." She nodded. "Please, try to escape." She added half-heartedly. _'Most of you don't deserve it. Cowards! You make me sick.'_ She kept this hidden from her eyes though. Tensions were elevating and likely the teachers would lash out if they even felt a tiny bit threatened.

"Kit, how are you going to get out of town?" Mrs. Coon asked, already resigning the fact she wouldn't likely make it out of here.

"…Well, my grandfather was an avid collector of guns, and since many of the people around this area collected firearms and even ammo…" She trailed off. "I figure the best course of action is to loot any and all sources of ammo, firearms and weapons we can find, then make it to the barricade, and if they won't let us through even if we prove we're not infected… blast our way out."

"That's suicide for you, Kit!" The female gasped, clutching onto the younger woman's shirt. "You can't!"

"I can, and if I have to do so to insure my friends' and even possibly my survival, I will." She let the woman grasp her clothing, and felt the hand release her shirt, accompanied by a gasping, shuddering sob. "I would have you come with us, but…"

"We all want to stay here." Mr. Blender nodded sadly, eyes glancing to his fallen coworkers, then back to Kit. "Is there anything we can give you…?"

"No. Not really. Except… can Taylor have your coat? I… I don't want her arms to be vulnerable." Kit mumbled the last bit, and with a chuckle, the man passed it to her fellow glasses-wearer.

"Where _are_ the rest of your friends, Kit?" He asked as Taylor shrugged on the tweed blazer, who was looking a bit more secure with a potential target for the infected covered. He felt dread overcome his heart as his thoughts turned to the possibility that they had been killed off and she simply didn't tell them of the casualties.

"In Florida." She shrugged. "They went on vacation. I'm glad." She spoke softly. "We'd better get going. And… die happy, okay?" She winked, and then signaled for her group to leave, the paper cutter weighty in her grasp but it made her feel safer to have something with a sharp edge that would cut through tissue and maybe even bones, instead of a bludgeoning weapon which would probably take twice as long to kill a zombie, much less any other monsters.

"Why didn't you tell them you had a gun?" Jesse asked quietly as they stood in the hallway, the door locking behind them.

"Because. People in a survival situation easily lash out. Mr. Blender and Mrs. Coon wouldn't have been able to stop a feral coworker who thought they might live if they had a gun." She gave a humorless smile. "Let me see Whellic's backpack. I have a hunch…"

He passed it to her wordlessly, all of them curious as to what she was looking for in the slightly heavy backpack. She dug around in the pockets, dumping books, binders and papers carelessly on the floor before she gave a grin of victory, eyes glittering. "Hah! I knew it. Thanks, Whellic." She murmured to herself victoriously before revealing the knife case.

It had just enough knives for all of them. She took the biggest, and passed the rest of the weapons and the holsters for them to her friends. Erin fastened it onto her shoulder with the only shoulder holster so she could easily slide it out, Taylor, Kimberly, Jesse, Kenneth, and Nathan putting it in their pockets. Kit fastened it to her belt, however, and tested it to see if she could get it out in a moment's notice.

'_Alright. Now we have some actual weapons. Weak ones against infected corvedai… but……It's better than having to beat them to death at close range with the desk legs.'_ "Let's move out." She pointed towards the window, and they all registered the big oak outside the glass pane. "I'll keep watch as you climb down." She nodded, sliding the knife from her pocket, sliding the paper cutter to rest, secured in her belt. _'Kami, I hope my aim's good with a knife. I've never thrown one before, but if a crow gets the bright idea to go after us I'm gonna have to learn on the fly.'_

At least the knife was pleasantly balanced, she noted with a small smile. Whellic always had prided himself on his knives, and at this point she was glad he'd decided to bring them today.

_CRASH!_ On the streets a few alleys over, she winced at the carnage. Two cop cars had blocked the street in an attempt to block off around twenty zombies, all of which screamed 'familiar!' to her. But it wouldn't surprise her. It was such a small town she'd grown up in, she knew nearly everyone.

"Okay, out you go." She smiled reassuringly to her friends, and opened the window, helping Jesse out first then Taylor followed him, and the rest kept their eyes on their fellow group members as Kit kept one eye trained cautiously on them and the other on the streets she could survey from the second story window.

Thankfully enough the crows had decided to go to the other side of the school, and no more dogs or other infected monsters decided to be around at the moment, and Kit's sneakered feet hit the grass gently as she slid off the last branch.

"Where to now, _Captain?_" Erin asked with a smile of humor.

"To my Grandparents, down Main Street. I know my Grandpa has a few shotguns and I'm pretty sure a few rifles. Not to mention my hunting bow's there too, Uncle Mike dropped it off there not too long ago. I was going to pick it up after school today."

Even though she never _had_ gone hunting, she was still a pretty decent shot, skills honed by Outdoor Recreation and her bb gun—which she regrettably forgot to store at her grandparents', where she'd been thinking of putting it for some time. At least it would have been a useful weapon to bludgeon dogs with, and shoot crows down.

"Hey! Kit!" A male's shout made her start, and she had her knife ready to throw when a familiar guy came out from behind the thick veil of trees that separated the three houses from the school's grounds

"Shane! What the hell, man, why aren't you in the school?!" Kit shouted back as he got closer.

"Well as soon as lunch rolled round I left to go home." He shrugged. "Then all this crazy shit started happening around town. Hey…" He looked at her group of friends. "Do… you know where James is?" He asked slowly, starting to pale.

Kit looked to the ground, and after a moment spoke. "…I'm sorry, Shane. A dog came through the window, and before I could stop it… He's in one of the self-locking classrooms…" She mumbled the last bit.

"I…" He shook his head. "Oh well. I suppose you wanna get away from this damned place as well as I do, right?" He asked all of them.

"Whatever it takes for you guys to get out safely, I'll do it." The redhead promised, with determination fueling her tone. "By the way, do you know where any ammunition for this gun is?" She passed her handgun to him, and he looked it over.

He gave a laugh, handed it back, and pulled out two more clips and a box of twenty more shells. "I'll be damned. Here," He passed her a clip and the box, keeping the other clip and revealing his gun from his extremely baggy pants pocket. "Nine-millimeter parabellum rounds?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Thank kami, ammo." She took the clip out and quickly pressed some more bullets into place before reloading her weapon. "Stole it from your hunting stash?"

He nodded. "Yeah. You?"

"…My mom drove up to the window and gave it to me before she took off. Dad was infected as well, and she was bitten. They're on their way to the hospital."

"_Fuck_," He breathed, before resigning his composure. "Well, where to next?" He gave a grin.

"My grandparent's house. We can stop at a few more places; some of the roads are blocked off pretty badly." She thought for a moment. "Our only real chance is to navigate around them, and get the hell out before…"

"Before what?" He asked quizzically.

Kit froze but shook her head. "Never mind Shane. How far are you going with us?"

"Just……Just halfway down Main Street. I want to go back home and see if anyone's there." He spoke. "…Kit, how far are you going to go to get us out?" He wondered, voice cracking slightly.

Her face turned serious. "As far as I have to." He grabbed her arm, eyes searching her forcefully deadened ones for a glimmer of something, anything, before she growled at him. "Let me go." He followed her order. "Don't touch me again." And with that warning she gestured towards the road.

Now that they were outside, they could hear the noises chillingly well now. The guys stood protectively in front of the girls, who some of which looked either rather annoyed at the chauvinistic gesture or extremely glad at the slight protection it gave.

"Let's go. The less infection the town is tainted by means we have a better chance of just being let out of here." The Masagobi spoke with a steely tone, and nobody found fault in her order.

They walked for about two blocks before they were met with a fiery block, a pile-up of around twenty cars, which had caught aflame. Smoke curled up so thickly from this inconvenient roadblock they couldn't see the sky through the blackened haze. A few zombies milled around the cars that were only half burning, and were pulling out the corpses they could find from the broken, cracked windows and windshields so they could feast on the slightly charred flesh.

"Hey, flesh-eating freaks!" Kit shouted, and they turned towards her.

"_Ungh_?" One moaned at her almost questioningly, turning and head rolling to the side, the hair all burnt or ripped out. She recognized the walking corpse to have been one of the ladies that had worked at the local drugstore.

"Die." She quickly ran up and slashed at its neck with the paper cutter, her gun tucked back into her pocket. _'How much stuff can happen in an hour and a half?'_ She wondered, for once knowing how much time had approximately passed. If it continued on at this rate the whole town would be overrun by six. As the zombie fell over, spinal column severed from the improvised blade, she turned to the next one. _'Bring it!'_

As Kenneth and even Nathan brained two of the zombies before taking on a third together with their desk legs, a wing-flapping noise caught Kit's attention.

"Crows!" She bellowed, before she got out her gun and Shane followed her example, and they carefully aimed for the flying menaces, bringing them all down with only six bullets in total used. But those things couldn't be underestimated. Look what had happened to Whellic and the teachers, after all, there had been very few of those black-feathered fiends yet so many casualties had been sustained due to infection.

"Alright, come on, move. Don't kill everything you see, just what's in the way. And remember, they can't open doors unless they're really fresh zombies, and it looks like the ones in these parts have been dead for quite a bit." She spoke after prodding one of the brained zombies, the blood in the mashed cranium oozing so slowly from the giant trauma wound in thick, rust-coloured chunks, which meant they had been dead for two or three hours tops. Maybe longer. People had been going missing for about a week now, she realized. _'Why didn't I notice something was amiss before?'_

There had been attacks as well, but with all the wildlife around here it had been attributed to hunters being stupid and aggravating the wildlife, such as Coyotes and countless others.

That's long enough for their motor skills to have been depleted so much so they can't move well enough to even open a door, she mused. "Well? Did I stutter? Come on!" She pointed towards the slightly blood-spattered street, and they followed her in their alternate route. "We'll get you to your house, Shane. Promise." She spoke that hollow promise, because they all knew she might not be able to keep it. They all fell into silence then as the ambience sounds made chills run up along their spines, making the hair stand straight up on their necks.

A scream erupted from inside a garage that stood next to a white picket fence surrounded house, and gunshots from within the structure perked their curiosities, especially the insatiable one of their redheaded leader.

"I'll go. Cover me." She started towards the now almost ominous garage door, which was blocked by the push-lawnmower which was haphazardly placed, causing the door to stay stuck.

"Kit! Hey, I'm coming with you." Shane hollered as he caught up, and she turned back to him.

"Shane," She warned, but was silenced by the sadness in his gaze.

"No. I couldn't protect James, but I'll protect you." He spoke stubbornly.

"I'm not worth protecting." She snapped back, and her brow furrowed. "All I can do is protect you guys, and then _maybe_ I'll survive this mess." She spoke lowly, eyes glimmering, but at his look calmed herself. "Fine. Do as you wish." The redhead conceded. She then got to the mower and pulled the heavy contraption out of the way of the door, then sucked in a breath as the door flipped open.

A bloody corpse lay in the center of the floor, face completely scratched off and the flap of thin skin was slashed to bloody ribbons where it still held on somehow at the jaw line. The white tee-shirt and light jeans were completely soaked in crimson, and the papery white skin on the hand held a shotgun, and she could see a few boxes of the shells for the single barreled, sawed off hunting gun on the far wall as well as some packaged food and distilled water. Items that were so useful she couldn't logically agree with leaving them behind.

A dripping noise caught her attention as she entered, gun drawn, Shane at her side and mimicking her movements.

_Drip. Drip. Drip._ She heard something hard and sharp, like a knife, scrape the inside of a ceiling duct, and heavy breathing barely registered in her eardrums. _'Get the stuff, get out, and leave the Licker alone with it not realizing that we've been here. Good plan.'_ She had a sickening lurch of her stomach that protested the idea but she still pushed on ahead, and bent down quickly and carefully, wrapping her hand on the wooden handle of the pump-action, semi-automatic shotgun.

_Screeeeeeeeee…_ Metal against claws, she shuddered, is the _worst_ sound right now. She quickly ran to the food, shells and water, and was quickly throwing them into her book bag when she felt a sense of dread overcome her. Her instincts _screamed_ 'behind you!', and she barely turned halfway before she was pushed to the side and into a shelf by a ball of furious energy. _'Shane!' _She realized with a hint of alarm, ignoring the dull pain of the impact on her side as she flipped to rest on her bottom, eyes widened with shock.

"No!" She spoke in a tiny, shocked voice, seeing her comrade's chest punctured through by the B.O.W which ripped through the shoulder, rendering it and the arm useless. "NO!" She saw red, and that savage emotion from before ran rampant through her veins, her hand raising without a thought. "DIE!" She screeched as the thing swung its eyeless head towards her, almost as if it was _taunting_ her with the elder Mullen's death as well as the younger brother of the raven-haired teen.

It hissed at her and crawled along the floor but she fired at it twice more with the shotgun, one shell completely decimating the exposed brain. She spat on its corpse as it wiggled on its back and died slowly, a pool of blood ringing around the creature's corpse.

She blinked her eyes, tears running down her face in pure rage as she wiped them away with the sleeve of her hoodie. Her other friends were shocked at the display of anger and pure killing intent she'd shown, and backed up a little, scared. They were too far away to see her tears in the dim-lit garage, the Licker having ruined some of the wiring when it had gone through the vent.

"Shane." She realized, dropping to her knees by her comrade, who was slipping into shock, his wound bleeding heavily as he wheezed. One of his ribs had punctured his lungs, she realized. There wasn't even a snowball's chance in hell he'd even live long enough to get him medical help like this. "I…I told you not to touch me again, loser." She whispered, sad smile on her lips. Her eyes were filled to the brim with that emotion, held back by self control so she wouldn't lose it. She needed to stay in control of herself…

"I…" He coughed, blood spraying from his lips. "Couldn't help it, heh…" Blood was choking him now. "S…Sorry. But… I get to see James again…" He smiled happily, eyes filled with the emotion and pain. "Give them hell for… Me." He laughed, and then swore as his chest gave a spurt of blood. "Ow!"

"Tell James I said hi." She laughed senselessly along with the dying teen who's right hand she clutched, and she looked into his eyes for another moment and marveled at how lively they were, dancing with pain and happiness mixed with a slight understanding; before they were lifeless and dead, and his grip slackened. She gave a shuddering sob but refused to cry when she could help it. There would be time for tears later. Either on her deathbed, after she and the others would escape, or as she bled to death. She didn't want to cry right then. It was like showing weakness in front of Shane, who had given his life for her. It didn't feel right.

She closed his eyes then took his gun and the clip he had left. He wouldn't be needing it anymore, she rationalized, and she passed it to Erin, who wordlessly took it, and shot Kit a saddened gaze that was laced with understanding.

"Alright." Kit started out, her voice cracking and the tone deep and throaty with the unshed emotions swirling in her, which she bottled up for later and cleared her throat. "Let's go."

They continued on their way, fresh death of another one of their group making them even more cautious. Kit was vigilantly at the front of the group, searching for a remotely safe place to rest and distribute the food and water as they gave the few zombies a wide berth. They unsuccessfully tried to block the sounds of the ripping flesh of the people who had lived in this town, keeping their eyes off the infected, increasingly afraid to see who had joined the ranks of the undead and who the zombies were feasting on.

* * *

**K.L.K- Goddamn. (whistles) Three deaths in one chapter.**

**Claire- (shudders) How the hell can you write this stuff, with your **_**friends**_** in mind, no less?!**

**K.L.K- (cocks head to the side then straightens it as she shrugs) I dunno. And Kit's a different character, remember, and I had to change the names of my friends—mostly their last names are changed, if they're even mentioned…**

**Rebecca- Aren't there herbs or first aid sprays?**

**K.L.K- (snorts) Nope! We're screwed, right? But still. It's a small town, remember, there aren't that many people. But still… **

**Jill- How did the Lickers and Hunters get there?**

**K.L.K- That will be in the next chapter as they finally get around that roadblock and back onto Main Street, where they'll find a disturbing thing in the Fire Station, and they'll make a quick stop in the Police Station.**

**Jill- Oh, okay. I keep think that you're intentionally leaving plot holes, but… meh. Who knows what goes on in your mind?**

**K.L.K- (shrugs) Sometimes I don't either. Anywho, Please—! (Is cut off by Leon)**

**Leon- Review! …Err… (Stares at the twitching K.L.K)…Ada, wait! (Runs wildly from the room and into the Closet of Characters Rooms where the 'call' from Ada came)**

**K.L.K-… (Shakes head) Whatever… Freaking rookie. I don't own Resi Evil! (Waves) **


	3. Oh Fuck! Hunters!

**Her New Beginning **

_The door to safety is locked, and you can nevermore return._

_Now there is only fear to contend with. _

_Enter the survival horror._

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE: **Holy fuck. This is _already_over ten-thousand words!? (stares at computer screen) Two chapters, only about a week… fuckin' hell, I need a life. (laughs) Alright, all jokingness aside, so far with the two chapters it's 43 pages and over twelve-thousand words. I love this fanfic… Anyway, to the third chapter! In this one we see more demise darkening the group's morale and they encounter the bane of all Director's Cut players, the…DUN DUN DUUUUN! Hunters!

**CHAPTER TITLE:** Oh Fuck! Hunters!

* * *

As the majority of the group relaxed on the patio furniture of a house that had the windows and doors boarded up, Kit and Erin standing guard as Taylor passed out the rations, and they chowed down.

She approached the redhead, who was ignoring the eating of her friends in favor of counting the shells she had left, and reloading her weapons. "Kit?"

She tapped the redhead twice on the shoulder, and was wordlessly met with Kit's eyes as the girl turned her head only slightly.

"Yes?" The hollow tone made Jesse wince. It was hard to see Kit draw into herself like this, but it was somehow better than seeing her break down. She was too strong for that, in their eyes.

"Aren't you going to eat?" The redhead shook her head, and then turned her gaze back to the road in front of her. "Kit, you need to eat."

"No I don't." She winced at the steely tone, before she gave a smile of amusement at the redhead's stomach stubbornly proving the girl wrong as it grumbled in retort to its master's denying it food when others were eating around her.

"Yes, you do. You didn't eat at lunch, like the rest of us. Eat." She shoved a pack of dried fruit and a pack of crackers into the other female's hands, and left to go whisper to and comfort Jesse. The redhead stared at her hands, and a small smile creeped onto her face even though Taylor had blatantly ignored her. _'Alright, Taylor… You win this time.' _She whispered in her mind then slipped the crackers into her backpack, making sure the shotgun shells wouldn't crush them.

She had her handgun in her hands, and her shotgun was sticking out of her book bag, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice. She was glad she was double-jointed now, because there would have been the dilemma of how to carry all the weapons if she wasn't able to twist her arm that far back.

'_Alright,' _she thought as she laid the handgun on her lap and opened the pack of dried fruit, _'I have twenty-eight shotgun shells, and forty-five handgun bullets, including what's in my guns. I better switch back to my paper cutter… Ammunition can be used up rather quickly in these types of situations.'_ She thought as she chewed, gears in her brain cranking.

It _was_true. How many times had she died while playing Code Veronica X due to the fact she ran out of ammo? How many times had she died in the GameCube Remake due to the same thing? She was treading on dangerously thin ice here, and if she took one little misstep it would either cost her life or—even worse—her friends' lives. She refused to let that happen when she had a say in it.

She ate about half of the pack of dried fruit, loving the taste. "Mmm…" She'd always loved fruit, though, dried or not. It just usually wasn't in high supply at her house, that's all. She froze before somewhat stiffly closing the three-quarters full bag and putting it into her backpack. _'How can I find small pleasures like tasty food in a hell like this?'_ Her dark, warm brown eyes scanned the skies, which were pale blue and had fluffy white clouds dotting it here and there. _'Right. No matter what happens in a concentrated area, life still goes on around it.' _She reminded herself, before getting off the stump she'd been sitting on.

"Alright. Is everyone ready to move out?" She asked gruffly, face set in stone.

"Are you alright, Kit?" Jesse asked, standing. "You're kinda…Acting cold." The other guys nodded shyly.

"None of your business, Jesse, alright? I'm just thinking." She snapped the first part, but at the second her face smoothed out and adopted a softer look about it. "This is just an impossible situation. Each minute brings more infection into the town and closer to us, lessening our chances of survival exponentially.

He seemed taken aback for a moment before smiling and poking her in the side, making her squeak and jump to the side. "You're still the same Kit. Alright, I'm ready."

"Move out." She spoke softly, and soon the patio furniture lay empty, as they'd found it before their rest.

--

"Hmm… Oh, not good." Kit murmured as they came to an intersection. In front of them a building had collapsed, burning. Probably someone had gotten the bright idea that fire hurt these things better than regular bullets then had gone overboard. The only way were the two streets, one dead end and one that went off at a sharp corner.

There were houses lining the sides of the streets and they all stood ominously silent, but Kit knew in this part of town there were many, many people who hunted. _'Do I risk their lives for ammo or should I just say to hell with it only to run out of bullets sooner rather than later?'_At the faraway but still chilling scream of a hunter and Licker apparently fighting each other for food, she made her decision resolutely.

"Hey! Alright, we need to split into two groups." She spoke up, and Erin gasped.

"That never works in the games, Kit, splitting up is a horrible idea!" She shook the redhead by the shoulders.

"Relax, Erin." The redhead pried her twin-like friend's hands off her shoulders which ached from the frightened, vise-like grip of the viridian eyed brunette. "In the games, remember, it was always that you were all by yourself or with a useless other person. However, each group will have a gun and have more than two people."

Erin didn't seem sure, but she trusted the Masagobi. "Alright. Sounds like an okay plan."

"The basics of this endeavor are to get into the houses, get the ammo and weapons if you can, get the hell out. Any questions?" Her eyebrow rose a bit when Kimberly raised her hand tentatively.

"Can I go that direction?" She pointed to the dead end and Kit nodded.

"Yeah, sure. Alright, my group is Alpha team. Nathan, Taylor, Jesse, and I are on this team. Team two, Erin's team is Bravo team. It will consist of Erin, Kimberly, and Kenneth. Sound good?"

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered quietly, determined to not gain any unwanted attention.

"Alright then! Split up and move out to cover more ground and secure more supplies." She ordered in a commanding tone and the two groups split from each other, going opposite ways. One down a dead end street, the other onto a much longer, probably more dangerous road that they would secure for an escape route.

--

With Bravo team, Kimberly was feeling around in her trouser pocket. "Hey! I have my iPod!" She shouted in happiness and Erin shot her a glance that told her to be quiet.

"It's a bad idea," She warned. "If you can't hear what's around you, you're as good as dead."

"But… I'm gonna go crazy if I don't listen to something other than—…" The mousy-brown haired, blue-eyed short girl was cut off, wincing at a scream of agony that was so shrill and bloodcurdlingly loud it probably carried from over several blocks over. "That." She finished off.

"Fine. But it's your funeral," The brunette shrugged. She couldn't force the other girl to not listen to her iPod, and Kit had said that other people shaped their own destinies—which also apparently included inviting death with a wide welcome such as that.

"Okay, okay!" The girl waved off and plugged in the iPod's ear buds into her ears and turned it way up, listening to Greenday's 'Jesus of Suburbia', one of the songs which had one of the more wacky videos.

As they wandered into a house Kim kept having a dark knot appear in her stomach and a lump in her throat. But she ignored it and cranked it up to maximum volume. A whole three bars.

--

Alpha team walked cautiously down the street, Kit leading them in front with her paper cutter out and her guns put away.

"Kit…" Taylor started. "Is all of the other team gonna come back?"

"…" She didn't know what to tell the girl wearing that overly large male tweed blazer. _'Should I tell her the stone-cold truth? It's harsh to do that… but…Argh. I hate this, why should I have to sugar coat anything for anyone?'_ She groused the last bit in her mind. "…They might. Some might, some might not. I don't know for sure."

"You sent them off when they could die!?" Nathan yelled.

"Shut up." Kit snapped. "I weighed the decision in my mind carefully. We need more supplies. We can't afford to give up a chance for ammo in this situation." Her arctic gaze made him shiver and shrink back behind Jesse. "I don't take this lightly, alright? It's something that must be done." Her voice was resolute and serious, the same as her face.

"…I'm—…" He was cut off by her raising a hand to signal for silence.

"Don't even say it. It isn't needed." She said with her face forced into a blank expression as they then returned to moving. They came upon a house that the door stood open on, and she cautiously went towards it.

"I'll go in. Jesse… Protect the others at all costs." She spoke and then turned away from the shocked visages of Alpha team and walked into the house quietly, face stony and eyes burning with a desire to find something to help aid their survival. Without anything more, she knew their chances were only a tiny sliver to nothing. Perhaps with more firepower or even just ammo for the guns she had, it would raise exponentially.

"Mommy, wake up! Mommy, wake up! Mommy! Daddy's scaring me!" She heard the scream of a small child, probably aged around five or six. A Kindergartener or maybe a first grader. Fire blazed in her chest as she entered the room as a shrill, blood-curdling scream wracked her nerves and she shuddered as she knew she had entered just a smidgen too late.

How she knew was the small corpse dangling from the clumsy arms of a somewhat fresh zombie, his face buried in the stomach of his dead ex-daughter, Sickening sloppy noises and blood flowing down his front making her want to gag.

The 'Mommy' was propped haphazardly against the wall, unmoving and neck at an unnatural angle as was her arm which was scratched all down the forearm with what looked to be a Cerberus's work.

Kit scowled and slowly raised her paper cutter, aiming it for the preoccupied zombie. "Die," She spoke with disgust. "You damned infected corvedai!" With that she brought the improvised blade down on the neck of the zombie, cutting through it halfway and managing somehow to wedge the blade into a niche between two of the neck bones, dark, discoloured and somewhat coagulated blood ran down the shirt, staining it overtop the small female's blood.

She grabbed it with two hands and forcibly dragged it through the zombie's neck, severing the spine in a rough, messy way. She grimaced at the blood spotting her jeans, but shrugged it off and looked to the little girl and inspected the cavity in her stomach where the organs had been eaten away by her zombified father.

The bastard had eaten so far he'd severed the spinal column. She laid the girl next to her fully dead mother and looked softly at the two.

She'd seen the girl around the large playground toy when she and her friends had hung out there a few weeks ago. She remembered the brown hair and squeaky voice of the once-energetic girl she had been just a minute too late to save.

'_I should have moved faster,'_ She thought regretfully then smacked herself inwardly, straightening her disappointed stance. _'Remember; not everyone can be saved. If they die, they die. Nothing I can do to change it. No reason to hate myself for it. She would have been scarred the rest of her life anyway, if she made it out.'_ She shook her head and then saw a rumpled paper on the coffee table in the apparent living room. She strode over and picked it up, and read the numbers scrawled on the scrap.

_2-18-98-10_

"…A code, perhaps?" She murmured, then left the room after her stomach flipped at the thought of the gruesome death the little girl had endured—and shut the door tightly as always.

She looked to the doorway next to it and opened it, paper cutter ready to strike, smears of infected blood still left even though she had wiped it off the best she could on the ratty, bloodstained couch in the room.

She dropped her attack stance and smiled genuinely when she saw the hunting cabinet in the room, an unlocked chest next to that, and holsters of all types littered about on the shelves and the solitary desk.

She grinned and found a handgun holster that fit her handgun, and then grabbed a strap to fix her shotgun onto her back. She also grabbed some pouches that she could put bullets and such things in, and grabbed a duffel bag that smelled like earth and slightly of animal blood.

It had obviously been used to transport hunting gear. She filled it with the four handguns she found there, the one rifle, and the one slightly rusted shotgun that still worked even with its slightly worn appearance. She also opened the chest and her smile only grew. Five small boxes and two extra clips which she could keep handy and reload her gun quickly with. Not to mention there was another box of shotgun shells and some rifle bullets as well.

'_These people were extremely helpful. Thank you.'_ She whispered in her mind as she left the house after raiding the medicine cabinet for band aids and gauze which she slipped into one of the four pouches she had on now. Her backpack still held the extra ammunition and food, plus a few bottles of water, but was relatively light compared to the back-bending weight of the schoolwork she usually carried.

She walked out of the room after grabbing a few more holsters for her friends and slipping them into the duffel bag which she was going to ditch as soon as possible. The bloody smell both made her stomach turn a bit and not to mention the infected corvedai would be hunting for things to feed on—she was pretty sure they weren't picky what type of flesh they got, whether it be animal or human.

"Hey, guys!" She waved, the duffel bag weighing heavily on her shoulder. "I found some guns and ammo!"

They cheered and met her halfway, and she passed a holster to them all along with one box of ammo and a gun. Jesse got a clunky one that had a few dings, Taylor got a small, silenced one, and Nathan got a pistol that was lighter than usual. Kit looked at her gun, and then put the guns that were left into her backpack, giving the rifle and rifle bullets to Jesse to carry, and the shotgun and box of shells to Taylor for the other glasses-wearing girl to carry in her mostly empty book bag.

As she began to speak, she took off her glasses to polish them. "Well, since we have guns we need to be careful. I'd loathe to have one of us die by accidental gunshot. This also means that you will not have to stick so closely to me, although I'd rather you keep in groups, got it?"

They all nodded. "Buddy system it is," Nathan grumbled, looking over his gun to see how it worked.

Ignoring this she put her glasses back on, and looked towards the next relatively unscathed house they were going to 'borrow' from. "Let's go. We have three other houses."

The other houses were either boarded up at the entrances, or the windows were broken and the doors hung limply on their loosened hinges.

'_I wonder how Erin's holding up with Bravo team…'_ The redhead wondered before resigning all her attention to be on looting the house for ammo, guns, first aid and bottled water.

--

Erin pinched the bridge of her nose, about to explode. Kenneth was in his own little world sometimes, Kim was listening to her music and tripping over every little pebble on the sidewalk; hindering their progress; and they hadn't found anything of value past nine-by-nineteen parabellum rounds for her handgun, and not enough to justify wandering around like that.

"Alright, I'm going to go into that house," She pointed to a two-story house painted a dirt-smudged white. "I'll be back in about fifteen minutes. Kenneth, go check out _that_ house," She pointed to a much smaller trailer. "And for god's sake _be careful!"_ She looked at Kimberly and removed an ear bud from the oblivious ear of the girl. "Kimberly, go sit on that bench."She pointed to a bench in a small garden, and then replaced the ear bud as they went on their appointed paths.

As the blue-eyed short girl sat on the bench, a smile came upon her face and she clicked next song, ending the chorus of 'Seven Years And Fifteen Days' by Groove Coverage prematurely, switching it to the last Greenday song on the system's chip. It was her favourite, too.

"_Do you know what's fighting for, when it's not worth dying for? Does it take your breath away, and you feel yourself suffocating?"_

Kimberly crooned softly along with the song, totally disregarding her instincts that were screaming at her to _be quiet_. She realized if she was going to die in this godforsaken outbreak, she was going to do everything to make herself happy that she could. It was the only thing she could do.

"_Does the pain weigh out the pride, and you look for a place to hide… did someone break your heart inside? You're in ruins…"_

Her head bobbed to the music, bright blue eyes gliding shut as she relaxed, stumbling over a few of the words. She suddenly felt _so tired…_ Perhaps it was because she had been all jittery and jumpy since they'd left the school.

She rested her head back onto the windowsill's ledge behind her on the house's wall, her hair sliding against the siding with the slight breeze.

'_Maybe it won't be so bad to sleep here… I'm happy, I'm comfortable…'_

"_One. Twenty-one guns, lay down your arms, give up the fight…" _

It was broken by a loud yawn. "It can't hurt to take a little nap…" She spoke aloud then started to spiral down into the black nothingness of sleep.

--

"Goddamn it!" Erin shouted. All she'd found were ten handgun bullets. And an apple. But the rest of the house was Tee-totally wrecked and looked as if fifteen Lickers had had a rave inside the ceilings and had tried to make drawings with their claws on the walls.

She shuddered with the creepy images conjured into her mind and decided to leave when she heard a Cerberus's _yipe_… almost as if it had been thrown from its prey by something _else_…

--

"Ugh, there's nothing here. Shit." He poked around in the small trailer, finding only cobwebs and cigarette butts littered about in random places, empty pop cans scattered across the floor and table tops.

He shuddered in disgust before looking down at his feet. His brown eyes grew wide and he uttered a high-pitched scream before getting the hell out of that garbage heap, the roach he left behind wondering why the giant creature had run from something so tiny and harmless.

--

Erin heard an uttered scream and ran out of the house, and nearly ran into Kenneth whom was pale-faced and twitching. "What is it?! Zombies? Lickers? …" Her face grew pale in worry. "_Hunters?!"_

"N-No! A _ROACH_!" He whimpered and gestured wildly at the word 'roach' as if it were the scariest thing in the world—and she stared at him with a 'are-you-really-serious' look on her face before pushing past the freaking-out guy and was on her way to Kimberly.

"Hey! Hey, Kimberl—!" She didn't even get to finish the girl's name as a Cerberus crashed through the window above the blue-eyed girl's head. "WATCH—!"

Kimberly opened her eyes, still halfway submerged under the warm, stifling cottony veil of her slumber. "Wha…?" She was just realizing that there were shards of glass _all over her._

Erin's eyes widened and she grabbed Kenneth's arm and dragged him along in a stumbling run towards where she knew Alpha team was, three more Cerberi answering the howl of their infected brethren.

--

"Alpha team, are we all here?" She counted the heads. Nathan, Jesse, Taylor, and herself. _'Phew…'_They'd just been attacked by a group of five zombies, covered in a foul-smelling greenish liquid, the veins in their exposed flesh purply and bulging out, their skin half eaten away in spots. She quickly checked them over for any kind of injury that would suggest infection; there was none, and she was grateful for that. At least they'd gotten some more handgun and rifle ammo out of the whole deal. They all had about forty-five bullets each to their handguns, which meant that they could at least kill a zombie. No promises about Lickers or Hunters.

The raiding of the houses on their end was rather fruitful, she admitted, and was rather glad she had risked it.

"KIT! HELP!" A scream came from down the street and Alpha team rushed out of the closed porch area of the house to meet with the incomplete Bravo team.

"What is it?!" She spoke hurriedly, and then saw the dogs chasing after her twin-like friend and ex-boyfriend of years ago. "Oh, FUCK NO YA DON'T!" She growled as she whipped out her shotgun, and the Cerberi tried to skid to a stop before she pumped the loading mechanism and pulled the trigger. Needless to say they were unsuccessful in their attempt at retreating, as the gore flew through the air, propelled by the firepower and buck spread the weapon was so dearly loved in situations like this for.

After she breathed a bit heavily for a few minutes, shoulder twitching and throbbing slightly at how fast she had moved so unexpectedly, she turned to the two, worry written all over her face for her friends. "Did they get you? Oh, please no!" She knew how easily one could be infected; a slip of a foot, a chomp of the infected corvedai's jaws, and like in the movies, the simple drop of a vial no bigger than her pinkie in length. Although she was glad that's one thing the movies had gotten wrong about the Tyrant virus. It couldn't spread on its own through the air.

"They didn't get us…" The brunette spoke, shaking Kit from her revire, but she looked towards the floor. "But Kimberly's back there… I'm sorry. She fell asleep on a bench, and…"

"I understand. I'm glad you did so, otherwise…" She hesitated then shrugged the emotion off. "You may not have made it back without being bitten, or even alive. The losses could have been greater." She looked in the direction that Kimberly's likely corpse would lay.

Erin saw the longing and torn nature in her friend's gaze. "…Go ahead and go, Kit." She spoke softly. "We'll wait for you here."

"Okay, if you all agree…" Everyone nodded. "I have to do this. And… Jesse, pass Kenneth your handgun; you get the rifle. Taylor, hand the shotgun to Erin; she'll know how to use it. I'll be back soon." And with that she tapped two fingers off her temple in a respectful, silent farewell and promptly turned on her heel, and with her handgun out, started to jog to the side that Bravo team had searched.

A few rather uneventful minutes later she arrived, and smelt the thick, coppery scent of blood in the air. A chill ran up her spine but she ignored it and pushed on; she needed, dare she say it, closure. If her friends were going to die in this hellhole, she wanted to see them before she left their bodies with a bullet lodged in their brains, if necessary.

When she came upon it she was saddened. Kimberly would have looked… so peaceful, if it weren't for the blood and the unsightly pile of gore that used to be a dog's head. The Cerberus lay dead, bludgeoned to death at the side of the bench, the once proud and thick German Sheppard coat an all-too familiar shade.

She gasped as she remembered the dog from her youth; Jade. Morgan Kinney's dog. She remembered the canine fondly; but should have known. No living thing was safe from the scourge of the T-virus. Or whatever virus this was.

"I'm so sorry Kimberly…" She whispered. The corpse lay on the its side, the right hand loosely holding an iPod, the ear buds out of the girl's dead ears, the device turned up so loud she could hear the music perfectly.

"_Lay down your arms, give up the fight… One, Twenty-one guns, throw up your arms into the sky… You and I…" _

Kimberly's favourite Greenday song. It was stuck on repeat, and she could guess easily as Kimberly had bled to death from her neck wound after killing the Cerberus, she could have hit the touch-screen button as she had spasmed in her death throes.

She shook her head of such dark thoughts, and clicked the device off, and raised her paper cutter, then swung it down sharply, beheading the corpse of her once-friend.

She wouldn't be able to handle herself properly if Kimberly became one of those… _unmentionables_. If any of her friends then. _'I vow that if any of my friends are infected… I will take care of them myself.'_ She spoke resolutely in her mind. _'They don't deserve to die and have their bodies ravaged by the virus, their humanities taken away from them… No. I won't allow it. They can die with a shred of dignity left.'_

A little voice whispered a few questions in the back of her mind. _What about you? _Kit scowled. _'I don't care what happens to me.'_ The voice 'Tsk'ed. _Not even what will happen to you? You know very well that human sanity is a finicky thing… It can flee at the slightest upset._

"I know that," she whispered. "But I'm not sure there _is_ a such thing as sanity in this world anymore." _'Well, that shut the voice up,'_ She sighed in relief then said goodbye to Kimberly in a way only she would have understood. She pressed two fingers to her mouth then pointed them gracefully at the unblinking, unmoving corpse. "May the Goddesses smile upon your destiny." She whispered, and then left the body with those last words, the ones which she had always used to bid her bye to the blue-eyed girl.

She trudged back to the group, somehow in higher spirits. "Let's move out. We need to keep going; we need to get out of here before sundown."

"Why? The streetlight will work." Kenneth pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. "Erin, how many times have the streetlights actually worked in a Resident Evil game when you desperately needed them to?" She asked absently.

"Almost never."

"Exactly. I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to die, screaming in the dark and shooting blindly." Kenneth looked sheepish now, realizing that had been a stupid sentence on his part.

Kit turned to him but saw something rustling in the bushes behind him. She heard the terrifying screech all Resident Evil players knew, and her eyes widened as she rushed forwards. "Kenneth, watch—!"

With a single leap the green-scaled, ugly-faced Hunter sliced off the head of the teen just as he was about to say something, his facial features not even changed in shock as his body fell to the ground.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" She and Erin took their Shotguns and blew the Hunter away—somewhat literally. All that remained of its ugly face was the strangely shaped bottom jaw, the broken teeth bloody.

The others looked down at Kenneth's body in shock, not quite believing one of them could have died _so easily_, as Kit numbly walked over to her friend's corpse.

"No. Not so soon. Not again." She mumbled, before closing his eyes and waiting for the body to stop seeping blood before gesturing to Erin. "I need a little help throwing Kenneth's body into the bushes… The Hunters will be drawn there instead of to us, hopefully."

Erin nodded, and helped deposit his body in the bushes, shuddering at the feeling of his corpse cooling in her arms. After they had disposed of it, the others had come out of shock.

"…Kimberly's dead." Kit spoke quietly. "We've lost so many of us… Let's keep their memories alive, yeah?" She asked, trying to bring up the morale even with a new threat, the Hunters lurking darkly in the back of their minds.

"We know… and Yeah. For them." Erin smiled, and then they went on their way, not looking back the direction where two of their comrades had died, in fear of breaking down when they needed to be strong.

* * *

**K.L.K- I realize this isn't as long as the others **_**buuuuut**_** I gave you two shocking deaths. Kimberly's was planned already with who the character represents—Ripredisawesome—but Kenneth's death was rather spur-of-the-moment. But I **_**did**_** have to introduce the scourge of all B.O.W's, the Hunter, somehow. (Chuckles darkly)**

**Claire- …Err… (Edges away from her) Are some of your friends actually reading this?**

**K.L.K- Yeah. Kimberly (who is Kim or Ripredisawesome) was instant messaging me on Facebook and we came up with how she wanted her character to die. And WilliamBandet is reading it… as well as one of my other friends, and probably another one will start reading it once there's five or so chappies.**

**Jill- O-kay… Anyway, isn't this all just the prologue?**

**K.L.K- Affirmative.**

**Billy- Damn! That's really…Wow.**

**K.L.K- (chuckles) Can you believe this prologue was supposed to just be a measly one chapter? Pfft, you can see how well that worked out…**

**Jill- How can you write SO MANY PAGES?**

**K.L.K- Well, I certainly don't type in teeny tiny type. I use Verdana point fourteen font. I got used to it on Notepad in my early days as a writer, and I find it much easier to read and check for errors if it isn't so small I have to move my laptop closer.**

**Barry- Ah. Point well taken.**

**Wesker- (reemerges into the main room) What did I miss?**

**K.L.K- (dead-panned stare at the Tyrant-1000)… Well, you missed a full chapter and about four deaths in total, and a bunch of weapons were found…**

**Ada- (drags Leon into the room and deposits him on the couch before irritatedly fixing her towel and heading back to the Closet of Character's Rooms) He burst in on me when I was in the shower.**

**K.L.K-… (Smacks Leon with a newspaper) Bad Leon! No walking in on Ada in the shower! Anyway, I think I should end this pretty soon. Well, please—!**

**Leon- (holding the red side of his cheek) Review! (Cowers from K.L.K and hides behind Claire)**

**K.L.K-… TT-TT**


	4. Sorrow, Loss and Smiles

**Her New Beginning **

_The door to safety is locked, and you can nevermore return._

_Now there is only fear to contend with. _

_Enter the survival horror._

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE: **Okay, it's the fourth chapter! Would you guys believe this was all just a prologue of the games? And just as a note so nobody is upset… I will be using bits and snippets from Resident Evil 5 that I find to be truthful to the spirit of the old games, and I will not change anything past the fact of that I will be changing the areas, and putting in puzzles. That and adding my character of course. But it's a long way off. And no, I will not kill of Wesker the way Capcom tried to—a volcano and a few rockets? Pfft. I doubt it. Especially if he was mutated and fused with Uroboros. But I have only read a few stories that contained _mentions_ of that. It's such a LONG way off though; I doubt any of you will miss it. Alrighty, fourth chapter! Only Kit, Erin, Nathan, Jesse, and Taylor are remaining. Who will be the next to fall to a gruesome demise in the damned village?

**CHAPTER TITLE:** Sorrow, Loss and Smiles

* * *

"Alright…" They were faced with a building, a small passage that was the only way past the either burned building or the ones with the boarded up entrances. "This is a bit worrisome…" She inspected the walls. Cracks ran throughout the brick, and some of the bricks would most likely crumble, an acrid smell coating the entire area and humongous, sticky strands of spider web were stretched across the upper story windows. _'Mental note; not going up there for __anything__. Not even a million fucking dollars.'_ Kit's inner anime character sweatdropped again and she ignored it, turning back to her friends, for once seeing their raggedy looks.

Sweat was running down Jesse's face. And it was no wonder—a long-sleeved denim coat with bits and pieces he'd pinned, sewed, or otherwise added to it weighing it down, black cargos, and a tee-shirt he'd made himself with one of his favourite band's logos. His hair had been growing longer since he was no longer in wrestling, and it covered the back of his neck and fell just short of being annoying enough to be clipped. His leather shoes would be soaked on the inside, he hadn't taken them off and he didn't wear thick socks.

Taylor looked rather… Tired and scared, but looked appreciatively at her when the fellow glasses' wearer thought she couldn't see. _'Why would she think I was worth being appreciated? Because I would sully my conscience by killing zombies, who were people I knew, and deciding to leave behind Sarah to her death, and all the things I've done. It's a wonder she doesn't hate me.'_ Her glasses had a few smudges on them and were slightly askew, Taylor's short brown hair was sorely needing to be combed through.

Erin was contemplative, but fiery as always. She had a smudge of dirt on her cheek that had stayed from the sweat—it was sort of warm out, but Kit was always feeling cold—and the knees and shins of her jeans looked worn and had dirt smeared into the fabric.

'_Probably she stumbled trying to drag Kenneth out of the path of those dogs,'_ She thought darkly and numbly. Inside she was weeping for her lost friends, but she stubbornly refused the emotion's begging to be shown on the outside. If her friends were here and still alive, crying would be like giving up at this point. At least to her, it would be. Her twin-like friend would understand it, she knew, because the girl knew and understood things about herself she never had quite grasped. She was in good shape other than that.

Nathan looked a bit apprehensive of the ambience sounds, and beads of sweat ran down his brow and neck. He had shed his coat long ago at school, and his tee-shirt was dampened with sweat, his chubby belly even more apparent. His jeans were dirty on the knees, stained red from the ambush of zombies Alpha team had gone through earlier, having tripped over a zombie and landed in the puddle of blood from another. Now _that_ had just been plain bad luck, even she admitted that.

She didn't know and didn't care how crappy she looked at the moment, but she surmised she must have blood on her shoes and of course some on her just-a-tad-too-long jeans. Most likely her side would be a giant bruise from the incident that had killed Shane earlier, judging by the phantom tenderness there, and countless others would be scattered across her pale skin, she knew, before this was over.

She was kind of glad in a somewhat sick way right then that Derek had disappeared from the group inside the school, something about trying to find some other friends to join the group with later. One less death to watch and one less body to find and make impossible to be infected.

"What?" Erin asked, checking her gun with almost jittery motions. Since she had seen all this in video game form many, many times, it didn't affect her quite the same way it did the non-players of Resident Evil in the group. But it still got to her.

It got to all of them, really, even Kit who now knew the terrible inner struggle that Steve had had while killing his zombified father to save Claire. She had to kill too many of her elderly and older once-friends here, and the incident with the small girl had shaken her to her roots although she didn't show it.

"Spiders." Was all Kit spoke, and pointed to the higher windows, Erin's eyes and mouth growing round with shock.

"Ohhh." Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms, gritting her teeth. "We're fucked."

"Yeah. It's not like we have any serum or blue herbs." Kit continued with this seemingly useless chatter—to the others in the group at least it seemed to be so—with her best friend.

"And no way to heal anyone if they get injured. Shit. Uhm, well, we have to go through there because I seriously don't want to see why that door's boarded up, ya know?" She jerked her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of that specific, ominously boarded up door.

"And no way are we going _over_ a collapsed building and we're sure as hell not stepping near the one on fire." Kit added.

"So that leaves going through there." Erin pointed towards the ominous door— which in the second floor of the building it opened into, held the arachnophobia-causing giant spider.

"Indeed so, yes."

"Can we get on with it?" Nathan spoke impatiently, and Kit stuck her tongue out at him before cracking her fingers, picking up her handgun, and heading to the door, group trailing behind her.

As they entered she breathed a sigh of relief. A small, almost tiny foyer with no blood spatters, no rotting smell, no noise of ripping flesh. A staircase led to the second floor, and she groaned when she saw the large padlock on the door that would lead out of this place—it had a pane of glass set into the shape of an oval in the middle, revealing the outside, after all.

"Fuck!" She hissed when she strode over to it, and saw there was yet another keyhole than she had expected in the padlock. "Why the hell is this locked?! Fucking paranoid people…" She grumbled. "I'll go hunt for the key. It's gotta be around here somewhere. Erin, you're in charge until my return." She spoke then with no warning went up the stairs and disappeared into a door. _'Please don't let this be a mini-Spencer mansion, no puzzles no puzzles no puzzles…!'_ She begged in her mind as she entered the cream living room, something glistening in the light from a window, the clock tick-tocking on the wall almost annoyingly loud in her ears.

Now that she was alone, she could think. _'I know going off was a stupid idea. But still… What time is it?'_ She caught sight of the clock with roman numerals on the wall. _'Seven. Shiiiit. If we can't get outta here soon, we're gonna be in the town in the nighttime. And I still don't know when the government will probably send a 'nuke. I mean, it's a good course of sanitation. You can't let it spread, everyone in confines of the town is as good as dead, and it kills everything.' _She frowned. _'I need to stop thinking of this. Problem is, I can't. Now that I'm living this nightmare of a survival attempt… My mind's determined to center me on that.' _She shook her head.

This place looked relatively untouched, but spiders were on this floor. She had had a pretty good feeling that the giant arachnids were here—the zombies covered in that greenish substance, and that acidic smell outside… No doubt about it, there had been plenty of warning flags. She supposed they'd been skirting around where the spiders had decided to stay. Which was a good thing, she couldn't complain about that.

"Now where would…" She mumbled to herself, and opened the door that she hadn't gone through. Her eyes widened. Did she mention she hated the fuck out of giant spiders? Especially when she could be poisoned by them and therefore die because they both lacked serum, a way to make an antidote, and any type of healing item because they didn't exist.

She sucked in a breath, securing her weapons, and… ran like a bat outta hell, passing the web-covered windows they had seen outside, and running underneath the spiders. When she had to dodge around one halfway through the hallway she couldn't keep quiet anymore, and as she ran through the rest of the hallway she opened her mouth wide and shouted "SPIIIIIDER_RRRRRRSSSS_!"

--

"SPIIIIIDER_RRRRRSSSS_!" The shout made them all jump, Erin clenching her gun.

"…" They were all silent, looking at each other strangely.

"Well… Kit always had a touch of arachnophobia…" Jesse spoke softly.

"And she always _hated_ the giant spiders." The viridian-eyed brunette contributed quietly, an amused smile on her face. She knew that Kit would come back A-okay. She was too smart to fall prey to simple infected corvedai such as the overgrown eight-legged monsters at this point.

--

Kit stared at the door, scrabbling sounds from the spiders making her skin crawl, before they gave up and went back to working on turning the hallway into their wonderful webby home. She observed the room and saw a key, and snatched it up. It had a pink dot of a fake gem on it, and she scoffed a little. _'It's to tell it apart, yeah, but why not just get keys of two colours? Why a pink fake jewel? I wonder who lived here.'_ With that she shuddered. She didn't want to know.

Now, she didn't judge people, it just seemed a little… off that someone would have a double padlock on a backdoor that someone could just break through! The only reason she didn't just do that was that the noise would definitely attract unwanted attention. Namely the attentions of hungry creatures. That and the fake gem was just weird all by itself, and she knew weird when she saw it. But this was a bad kind of weird, not the good kind of weird her friends claimed her to be.

She looked to the table and her heart dropped a bit, a little afraid. A diary lay on the table, one last entry on its crisp white pages. She solemnly picked it up, almost as if it were her duty, and began to read the person's final entry, dated that day.

_Dear Diary,_

_It's Four-fifteen in the afternoon here in Ohio. I'm hiding because the Cannibal Disease is running rampant through the streets. I refuse to die like Brian did. _

_Poor Bro… His humanity taken away from him slowly… I'm almost glad the spiders ate him._

_Listen to me. I think I'll be actually certifiably insane after this. We've padlocked the backdoor because the zombies are…err… over-zealous. And we don't need an infected neighbor bursting in here._

_One key has a fake pink gem on it. The other has an orange one. I lost the orange one, though, and the pink one's by where I will lay this diary. If anyone is reading this—I doubt this very much—I will have sacrificed myself to the spiders on the plain fact that I'm losing it without Brian…_

_Dear God, why did this happen?_

_-Carina Elkin_

Kit set it back down. _'So, I'm looking for an orange fake gem?'_ She cursed aloud. These people were either very weird or extremely paranoid. She flipped to a random page in the diary, about thirty or so pages back from the last entry.

_Dear Diary,_

_My therapist says my OCD tendencies are getting worse. Not to mention that she says my Bro is getting worried about me, but whatever. _

_They're also worried about how I like to keep everything prim and neat. Ha! Brian's the one who put the fake gems on the keys, not me! I swear… He's the one with fully-blown OCD symptoms, not me!_

_That and my meds are running out… I gotta run to the drugstore in a few days. If I don't get them I start losing sleep and hallucinating… I'm not re-living the incident at my aunt's wedding again; they put me in the psyche ward for a week until it was all cleared! Man, what's so weird about talking to a random tree at the outdoors reception? Especially since I didn't take my medicine that day…_

She just stopped there, disturbed beyond what she thought was truly possible for her. A weird look crossed onto her face as she put the book down, this time with a clear objective of _never touching it again,_ and headed towards the second door in the door in the room as she thought, _'Ooooo-kay… Note to self; no more diary-reading in this house. Is it just me or is it much less tense inside than outside?' _She opened the door, and entered the room, immediately slamming it shut and running forward; a zombie had lain in wait for her, apparently. She killed it, three holes seeping rusty-coloured blood were contrasting with the pale flesh of the female zombie's face.

"I do believe I just found Carina Elkin…" _'And apparently,'_ She spoke in her mind as she trailed off her sentence she had spoke out loud, _'the spiders' poison killed her, judging by that smell.'_ Then she thought to look around the room.

It seemed to be a small study of sorts. Psychology, anatomy and self-help books lined the shelves, and she felt a pang of sadness. She wouldn't get to read any of them. She loved to read books of all types, even if they didn't necessarily mean anything to her personally.

She shivered. It was freezing in here; and she glared at the culprit, a frost-covered air conditioner. "Maybe she thought it would slow down the virus or poison?" She mumbled to herself, then clicked it off, and went to the second door in the room. Thinking it open, she automatically approached it and went to go through after grabbing and twisting the knob. Her hand flew off the handle which didn't move, and her eyes widened as she ran into the door, landing on her rump from the offset.

"Goddamn door. I'm lucky nobody saw that." She murmured, and got up, taking the hair pin off her tee-shirt's collar and used it to pick the lock. Well, she had to do something when her bedroom door used to lock on her when she wasn't expecting it, right?

As she opened the door, none too happy her body had met it in friendlier way than was wanted, she stepped into a large, white painted room. In the glistening light from a desk lamp, she saw a key, the shininess hurting her eyes slightly in the dimmed room.

She snatched it up and then hopefully looked for another door; and her eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open when she realized she'd have to go back through Arachnid Central—AKA the hallway covered in webs—to get back to her friends.

"This is just _so_ my luck…" She whispered.

It was true. She knew and told people she had bad luck, but they didn't often believe her. But it was the kind that would strike amidst a shining sea of great luck, ultimately ruining her day or just making her pissed off. Or even sometimes sad. Right now it just pissed her off; she had had to go through that corridor of eight-legged freaks of nature once already and now had to go back through. _'Fuck.'_

--

After stumbling through half the halfway, she slowed down. The spiders were far too busy to go after her; an unachievable meal, and had ignored her in favor of duking it out on where their territories were.

"Overgrown tarantulas…" She mumbled under her breath as she strolled down the corridor, trying desperately to ignore the sick, sticky sounds her shoes made as they came off the spider-silk covered wooden floor. She was just beginning to relax—when a body fell down in front of her, cocooned in the handiwork of the spiders, acrid smell mixed with old blood spreading through the air as the entrapped zombie gnashed its teeth at her uselessly.

Nevertheless, it made her jump a good two or three feet in the air, and the head was soon hacked off by the instinctual swing of her paper cutter. Messy work on her part, but hey, it got the job done.

She frowned as she murmured, "I'm never getting the three years back that that thing scared out of me." She punched it as she went past, immediately regretting it as her knuckles stuck slightly in the webbing, and made a face as she rubbed them on her jeans. _'I knew I should've grabbed my little bottle of hand sanitizer from my locker.'_ She cursed as she exited the hallway, shutting the door and putting a chest in front of the door in case any of the spiders' babies got the bright idea to go under the door. She'd seen the sacs of eggs in the far corner, and she didn't want to meet any pissed off tiny giant spiders.

She then dug into her pocket and then grinned at the two keys—fake gems sparkling in the light, and she exited the room with a grin on her face.

As she walked down the stairs, she saw her friends were half asleep, except for Erin which nudged Jesse awake, and in return her awoke the others as they conversed.

"Giant spiders?" The brunette asked with a wide, toothy grin.

"Shut it, it's not funny." The redhead rolled her eyes. "They're smarter though. Second time through the hallway they didn't really mind me, knowing they couldn't get me. Which was strange. But whatever, I got the two keys." She shrugged, then went over to the padlock, and inserted the keys, then turned them one at a time. No clicking sound. She cursed and switched them; then it worked like a dream.

"It took you two tries?" Nathan asked, holding up the discarded padlock, pointing to the back where it could have been lifted up ever so slightly to show the pink and orange dots—painted ones—that told which key went where.

"…Shut up Bish." She spoke darkly, making him drop the lock and laugh nervously, edging behind the other three, whom of which he knew she wouldn't viciously bowl over to claw him. Or pull his ear. Whichever she felt like. She was his friend, yes, but that didn't mean her violent streak would pass over him if he invoked her wrath. He'd messed with her enough to know that.

Everyone else rolled their eyes, clearly used to the two's antics.

Calming herself, Kit then spoke, everyone listening intently. "Alright. We're going to go back into the outdoors again. For kami's sake, be careful! And we're going to have to cut through a few more alleyways, and possibly houses. We're nearly back to Main Street." She pointed out the glass window in the door, and you could just barely see the long, thin and tall concrete marker that proclaimed the street name to be Ninth Street. "We'll be there soon enough."

"If you say so." Jesse shrugged, and Taylor nodded. They didn't know their way around town as well as Kit, Erin and Nathan because they lived in a neighboring, larger town called Vanceburg. Hell, all Leighton had was a crappy McDonalds and an even crappier Subway for all the restaurants, while they had a Dairy Queen and then some. That showed just how much larger that town was.

"Yeah. If we can cut through some people's yards and maybe houses, we'll just get there all the faster." Erin agreed.

"We'd better be careful. It'll be dark in an hour or two." Nathan spoke seriously, for once in his life. That made Kit take a double take at him, gawking.

She then felt her face melt into an amused grin, eyes glittering. "Careful Chains. I'm rubbing off on you." With a chortle of laughter from everyone, the mood was lightened and they left the somewhat safe house, entering the blood-spattered, infected streets once more.

--

As they came to a creaking, rickety but rather long shed, they looked at each other and simultaneously cursed. "Shit."

They then immediately said, "We're not talking about this ever again… ARGH! STOPPIT!"

"O-KAY!" Kit shouted over the squabble, catching their attentions. "Through the humongous shed we go!" they gave her dead-panned stares. "Let's do it before it collapses, alright?" She snapped, and they all nodded, running across the rickety boards in a single file line, taking the path of the least rotted boards, being led by Kit.

Kit was on the other side, panting—and wishing she had the forethought to have picked up another bottle of water for herself since she was thirsty, and there was a sickening splintering noise. She looked up, and the colour; whatever colour could be considered in her pale face drained, making her have a sickly white visage. "NATHAN!" She screamed. "The roof's caving in! RUN!"

The pudgy boy had been lagging behind, unused to running, and he yelled out in pain as a rotted rafter came crashing down on his skull. The shed had been unused for years now, but since both of the tall fences with points were barring their way, it had been the only way to go.

Her heart thudded in her chest as she saw his face slowly screw up in pain, as he stumbled, disoriented, to a section of floor that looked wafer-thin. "NO!" His legs crashed through the discoloured wood, both of them snapping with sounds almost like a gunshot and splinters of wood shooting into his skin, the foot-long spikes drawing a scream and gushes of blood. His shirt was no help, the thin cotton only soaked up the blood minutely before it started to puddle on the floor and the visible parts of the rotted wood splinters puncturing his body.

He looked up at her, arms scrabbling for a hold, to possibly pull himself out. He _wanted _to live _so badly,_ Kit mused with a frightened face as she took a step forward, towards him. Jesse and Erin held her back from rushing to his aid, Taylor grabbing her book bag in her own attempt to restrain the girl.

He mouthed, as he glanced up at the caving roof, 'I'm not going to make it,' and smiled a bright smile to her as tears leaked from his eyes.

With a tremendous creak and a rumbling of splintering, the boy was obscured by the heavy weight of the rotted wood. The fresh scent of blood and death spreading through the air confirmed that no help would save the boy now.

She weakly pulled at her friends' arms, mind not quite getting the memo about it being over for the chubby raven-haired teen. Over, and she could do nothing, she couldn't have done anything. Her tugs stopped and they let go, and she fell to her knees.

They seriously thought she was about to weep for the chubby Chains, but her eyes snapped open in fury. "YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE, YOU GODDAMNED BASTARD!" Her voice was ragged and torn. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET OUT OF HERE AND BUG THE HELL OUT OF ME EVERY DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE! CURSE YOU FOR GIVING UP!" Her hands fisted the long grass, and everyone else stayed back, waiting for her to let it out.

Taylor was weeping, Jesse consoling her. Erin was breathing deeply, eyes closed in sorrow. They respectfully looked at the sky as the redhead's shoulders shook, and dry sobs escaped her mouth.

"I'm fine, guys." She spoke lowly a few minutes later, pushing herself into a standing position, face a cold mask once more. She hated doing this, but this was the only way she would be able to function. "I'm just tired of all the death… I'm tired of seeing you all killed one by one. I'm tired of it."

Erin patted her shoulder, in silent understanding.

"I say we keep going. The nightmare for him and the others is over. For us… It's still raging through us. Let's go." She suggested, and they nodded quietly.

As they walked through a few yards, cutting their travelling time by about ten minutes, they were faced with an alleyway. It wasn't one of those clean-ish, light ones you'd usually find in Leighton, no, it was dingy, dark, and held dumpsters and overturned trash cans.

"Wow. When did this town start turning into such a dump?" Kit mumbled. But it had been coming. A small, pathetic police force, and the local basket making factory nearby had fired a bunch of people. The town was getting old and worn and suffering from the economic downturn, since the unemployment percentage was unusually high in the state of Ohio. Around… nine? Twelve? She couldn't remember. Her History teacher had always kept them updated on it.

With that her thoughts turned sad. All her teachers were dead. She was pretty damned sure her half-sister and brother in law were dead, and her parents, grandparents, and most likely any cousins who lived in Leighton and the city would be dead and gone in a matter of hours. Maybe they already were.

Most of her relatives were either old or very young, so it wouldn't have surprised her any if none of them were left. What would happen if she survived this? Would she be shipped off to a distant family? Put up for adoption? She could fake her death and get a new identity, but she didn't have the connections. The thought surprised her, but she was far too used to her mind throwing disturbing thoughts out at her. It was a very interesting option. But she didn't want to live the rest of her life in hiding, as that option would entail.

Besides, she was too distinct in personality and looks to pull anything like that off. Crimson red hair with black dyed tips, pale skin, a pale scar underneath her bottom lip where her teeth had gone through as a small child, and dark brown, warm eyes weren't exactly something you saw every day. Plus she was immersed in too many things and had been receiving prizes for her singing talent in contests for years upon years. She was pretty sure she had been in a few newspapers, but wasn't certain, and knew for a fact she'd been briefly mentioned on the local news for singing at Leighton's Oktoberfest.

There weren't many options to choose from, if she made it out. Jesse and Taylor's parents and relatives lived in Vanceburg. Erin's family lived in the small town that had a power factory that supplied most of the jobs for it, Caneyville. The town was so cut off, it might be safe from whatever had happened to have an outbreak in Leighton.

She knew that the government would force her away from her friends if their parents or relatives couldn't or wouldn't take her in. She was sure Dixie, Erin's mother, would fight on her behalf but Kit knew it would be a losing battle for the woman, and she'd give up. She had three other mouths to feed besides Erin, anyway. She couldn't impose on them like that, even if it was so she would be with Erin and possibly the rest of her friends.

'_Maybe… Maybe it would be better to just die in this. Another nameless, faceless statistic's insignificant life taken by Umbrella's virus.'_ She then shook her head determinately. _'No. I won't allow myself to think that.'_

"Alright. Through the creepy alleyway we go." Erin murmured, and they nodded. Jesse prepared his rifle, Kit and Erin did the same with their shotguns, and Taylor did so with a lack-luster confidence since she was inexperienced. But since she was sandwiched in between Erin and Jesse, Kit leading them slightly, she felt safer.

As they walked at a relatively hurried pace through the dark passage, a screech of a licker made them shudder. That was the last thing they needed.

'_At least there aren't any Drain Deimos or Brain sucker-things from RE3. That would be hell.'_ As soon as she had said that, something wet and warm slid across the back of her neck. She stiffened. "…Jesse… did you just lick me?" _'Well, he _has_ licked my jacket before, I'm not too surprised if he'd move on to just licking me at random,'_ She was clearly used to her friend's weird behavior which she didn't consider all that weird.

"…No, I didn't." He whispered.

That's when she heard the raspy breath of the Licker, and she looked up, frozen in fright. The tongue was trying to pinpoint her again, and instead reached towards Jesse.

"RUN!" She all of a sudden screamed, making her friends scream out of shock and more importantly got them going, running out of fear and then of realization as the Licker screamed and crawled along the wall for them.

'_It's at an advantage,'_ Kit realized. _'It can hop from wall to wall, and I'm surprised it just didn't choke me right then and there. It could have, and I would have been none the wiser.'_

"AHHH! Kit, Kill it! Kill it!" Taylor shrieked, as Kit and Erin tried to shoot at it with their shotguns while running.

"I'm TRYING!" Kit screeched back, ribs aching already from running and neck hurting a little bit from craning while running to shoot at the damned gorilla-like thing that had no real type of skin. _'Ha… Gorilla without skin… The Itchy Tasty guy from Resident Evil one said that's what they looked like. Haaa…'_

She kept shooting at the thing while running, before Jesse tripped. "JESSE! GET THE FUCK UP!" She screamed, hesitant in both stopping but more so in continuing on without her friend.

"Go on! I got this bitch!" He brandished his rifle, taking aim carefully before unloading a powerful shot into the Licker's brain. When the girls didn't move, he turned his head with an almost angry face. "GO! I'll catch up if I can!"

"Jesse, you fuckin' better!" Kit shouted over her shoulder as she grabbed both of the other girl's wrists, and dragged them with her even as they protested. If Jesse was the type of guy she knew he was, he'd drag himself to them even at the brink of death. That and he was a pretty strong guy, she just hoped he could kill the Licker than get the hell outta there.

As they came to a stop, panting and ribs aching, Taylor started to cry.

"He's gonna die…" she sobbed, and Kit shook her head.

"Stop being so negative." _'Woooow I feel like a hypocrite…'_ She murmured in her mind, as she wiped off the sticky, thick spittle off the back of her neck. "Yuck… at least a licker didn't try to give you a tongue-bath." Kit pulled a face and Erin laughed a little, but the small group was definitely tinged with sorrow, and anticipation.

All they could do now was wait.

--

After killing the licker, Jesse spat on the twitching corpse. A ring of blood seeped around the unnatural corpse. That's when he got a good look at it.

His stomach turned at how it really didn't _have_ any skin. The muscles and bones showed, the claws deadly sharp. The long tongue lay limply on the ground. The white, razor sharp talons were stained with his blood, his side slashed. He was sure he would and could survive with it. He'd made it a point to keep the thing's jaws and tongue far away from his flesh.

He limped out of the alleyway, hearing a faraway zombie's groan and another scream. Someone other than their group had somehow survived this long… but it seems it was for naught.

As he struggled on, fingers trying to staunch the flow of blood from his side, he allowed himself to think for once since this whole thing started. _'Kit's worrying me. She seems… okay, actually, but a little shaken. I've gotta get back and protect Taylor… And Kit, even if she'll hate me for it later. They're like the sisters I've never had… And those two have had enough bad luck. Kit especially. With her childhood and mind, it's a wonder she hasn't gone a little crazy. She was always there for all of us…' _His mind drifted back a few years ago, when he had called her Mom. He'd then received one of her sledgehammer kicks.

He chuckled at the fond memory. To him and the other guys, she kept them in line with ear-pulling and half-hearted slaps aimed for their arms. She never intentionally really hurt them unless they started to piss her off, which she usually gave a warning for. It's usually when they had gone too far or she was getting annoyed. She sometimes hit them harder than she thought she did, and then apologized. She didn't know her own strength. She wasn't aware of it, just like she wasn't aware of how much of a leader she could have been and was right then to the diminishing group's members.

She always took things to heart at the weirdest times. Like when she was sick a bunch, and missed a choir thing or had to just look professional, she hated herself for not being healthier. When she felt she let people down, even if she didn't, she was depressed for days, mad at herself for not being able to do better. She also hated to mess up on any type of occasion, but she brushed off social blunders much better than the ones that happened in school and with singing. It was almost odd in that manner, but Kit was one of a kind.

As he walked unevenly, finally catching sight of them, his chest heaved with a sigh of relief. He was pretty sure they had something to stop the bleeding; he'd make it if they did.

He felt his heart drop into his stomach when he saw Taylor being hugged by Kit, Erin standing off to the side with a sorrowed face. _'I would make that much of an impact to my sisters?'_

* * *

**K.L.K- Alrighty! Chapter end! (Hums save room song from Resident Evil 1)**

**Jill- Jeeze. You're giving this Jesse dude a bit more depth than you did the others.**

**K.L.K- Well, he'll hold a little importance later, as will the rest of the survivors. It will just not be what you would expect from me. And I know, this was a bit more… humorous than the previous chapters, but it quickly got back to being brutal and bloody.**

**Barry- And he thinks of your character and Taylor as… His sisters?**

**K.L.K- Yeah. We'll see more on that in the next chapter. Hopefully the real story will get truly started. This chappie is a bit longer than the previous one, I do believe, but meh. **

**Wesker-… Well. The Nathan boy's death was a bit unexpected. **

**K.L.K- Well, I figured not all the deaths could be attributed to infected corvedai alone. With all the mayhem, some people would get killed off by environmental reasons alone.**

**Claire- I'm surprised you let the last one live. Is the next chapter going to be riddled with death and angst, or something?**

**K.L.K- Yes, probably. By the way, I'm as sick as a dog. (throws herself down onto her bed where she hacks) I've all but given up talking aloud. Hurts too much. So I'll be channeling that pain and my distress at not being able to sing into that.**

**Wesker- (blinks slowly)… you… Err… get distressed at not being able to sing?**

**K.L.K- (scowls) Yes, it's my thing. I love to sing—it's how I cheer myself up when I'm feeling down. I can't even just listen to music… It makes me sad that I can't sing along.**

**Leon- (still cowering behind Claire) I feel bad for you now.**

**K.L.K- (shrugs) Don't. I'm actually going to the doctor's tomorrow.**

**Everyone- (goes silent)**

**Wesker-… Your parents are actually taking you to the Doctors?**

**K.L.K- Yes… after mom came home and saw exactly how sick I was, she made dad promise to take me tomorrow. No school for me either. I know being sick is the worst when you wake up, but it was so bad… and I'm tired of being sick. Plus I have a choir thing next weekend.**

**Leon- (sits beside her on the bed) So… What day is it?**

**K.L.K- (groans) Thursday, the fourth of February. Yeah, I know. Terrible timing. Anyway, I better wrap this up… Please Review! … Wasn't anyone going to interrupt me?**

**Wesker- (uncomfortably) No, you look much too sick. Go to bed.**

**K.L.K-… Err, Wesker, you're showing… caring. (Points) Who are you and what have you done with the real—?! (Stops mid shout and hacks up phlegm) Ohhh… I'm gonna… go to bed. (Lays back on bed while the characters look at her in slight worry)**

**Leon- Wow… **


	5. Haunting Memories, Soft Reassurance

**Her New Beginning **

_The door to safety is locked, and you can nevermore return._

_Now there is only fear to contend with. _

_Enter the survival horror._

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE: **Okay! I feel much better now. Although the medicine tastes like shit, it helped a bunch. I had to take it every six hours, so it wasn't that bad. Alrighty! The fifth chapter! After this one, the story will actually be started. I'm keeping fairly consistent in working on this, only because I love this one so much. This is also why the chapters are so long… and since I don't know exactly how many people live in my hometown (the one Leighton is based off of); I suppose I shall have to put it at a few thousand. So, it's not quite as widespread and disastrous as the Raccoon City outbreak, but to the teens, it might as well be. Let's get this story going!

**CHAPTER TITLE:** Haunting Memories, Soft Reassurance

* * *

"It's alright, Jesse's gonna be fine…" That's when Kit trailed off, eyes wide at her brotherly friend. "Jesse! Erin, get the first aid from my pack!" She screeched as she sprinted over, Taylor following her lead.

The two hugged him tightly; carefully avoiding his wound; and Kit took the gauze and disinfectant gathered from random medicine cabinets from within the houses they'd looted for helpful items, from the brunette's hand and started to work on the male's wound.

Her mother was—_had been_, she reminded herself, an R.N Nurse. She'd taught her how to use the first aid kit's contents to their fullest ability, and how to take care of smaller wounds.

'_This is not as bad as it looks,' _Kit thoughts, pushing Jesse's shirt away from the wound and pushing the sleeves of her hoodie up. _'It's just bleeding profusely… It looks like it just missed the floating ribs. Good. If those had been broken we wouldn't have had anything to set them with other than to wrap it. Or we would have had to remove them, so they didn't pierce any of his organs…' _She murmured this in her mind as she disinfected the wound and washed it out with half the contents from a water bottle, and it must have hurt judging by that grimace on his face.

She was all of a sudden very glad she rarely got nauseated, otherwise she would be like Erin and Taylor, desperately trying not to look at the ugly flesh wound of their friend. "It's not too deep. Jesse, I've gotta try to stitch this a little, okay, otherwise the skin's just gonna keep tearing and you'll keep bleeding." She told him carefully, and he nodded. She had made him lay on the ground for easy access to the wound.

'_It's a good thing I always paid attention to when Mom would take stitches out of the pets. She taught me how to make them, too, when she taught me how to sew. Plus I've seen medical documentaries on this sort of stuff… Luckily for Jesse.'_

She inserted the needle into his skin, tough but sterile thread sliding through easily after the metal instrument. He gave a low whine and she stroked his cheek as a comforting gesture for a second before continuing her work, knowing to prolong it would only increase the pain. "It's going to be okay, Jesse, you're not infected. It would be swelling and itchy if you were. You're going to live, even with this wound." Since he hadn't lost too much blood, and was still conscious, she had to surmise that he was stable for the time being. That and he didn't have a fever…

That still didn't stop the low groan mixed with a whine of pain as she sewed the large gash shut, the redhead glad it wasn't too deep and he'd managed to keep dirt out of it.

Soon she put the last stitch into his skin, and made sure she'd done it correctly. She held a pad of cotton against the wound, which she had slathered with antibiotic ointment, to protect against infection, and wrapped it up. "That good?" She asked, him sitting up a little. They had to get moving soon, because the scent of fresh blood would draw the monsters to them all the faster.

"Yeah. Feels a hell of a lot better now that I'm not bleeding everywhere." He smiled. "Nice work. The stitches hurt like hell though."

She knew he was still in pain. She looked through the bottles she'd managed to recognize the medicines that were held within, and took out a familiar one. "Here take these ibuprofen. Pain killers, they take down swelling and fever too." She handed the twp pills and the other half of the water bottle that she'd used to clean his wound.

"From here on out we can't really stop all that often. If we do, we must take shifts to watch for enemies. It's gotten more dangerous, having a wounded member, but we can't give up."

Jesse nodded. "I haven't survived this long just to die." He spoke lowly, and they all internally agreed as they helped him up, and he found he could walk alright, with little pain if he was careful.

"Alright, we're on Fifth Street. Let's get moving down to that alleyway. Hopefully it's uneventful." She spoke, and they all nodded then proceeded.

--

As if someone had decided to cut them some slack, their passage through the last two alleyways _was _rather uneventful, save for Kit accidentally knocking over a trash can when she had stumbled, and they were well on their way through someone's yard. The trees gave off shadows, the abandoned plastic playhouse creepily silent in the situation they were in.

Kit could almost see the children who had once played in it. They would call to her to come play with them, and she would have done so too if her grandmother hadn't wanted her to come right back after she had visited her friends who had lived in town at the time. She had played with them once, but it had been short lived. The brother and sister had been as innocent as they come, she swore to it, and they had an infallible sense of trickery which made her laugh.

But, she sobered up having been a bit happy from the memory's ghosting emotions, they're most probably dead. _'And I can't do anything for them now. Oh, to be a child again… Soft, sweet, unknowing about the world's tortures and horrors so acutely… innocent. I haven't been truly innocent in a very long time. And as they say: innocence, once lost, can never be regained.'_ She snapped from her thoughts with that sorrow-tinged quote, and continued on, her friend's half-watching her in silent contemplation as they watched around them, guns out and the safeties off.

As they passed an empty putt-putt course—it was owned by an elderly couple, she'd played at it a few times but not recently—she was reminded of when their grandson had been her boyfriend when they were much younger, and he'd taken her here on a date.

"_You know, this is pretty fun!" She had said, putting another par three._

"_Yeah, it is… I'm glad my Grandparents have this in town." He'd responded, taking his turn._

"_It's small, but I like it. It has a… unblemished, quiet feel about it. It's perfect. Thanks, Oscar." She looked around the place, speaking at the same time, and he smiled at her smiling face._

She shook her head as the memory faded away. She had been over Oscar for nearly half a decade now, her heart still scarred from the heartbreak she'd endured when she was so young. She had dated when she was younger, and it had tapered off into her being single for the past three years. She loved being single though.

The memories still haunted her, and she knew, they always would. Oscar was dead. He'd been in the school, and she had glimpsed him in the halls, looking sickly and holding his stomach. He was a part of her past now.

As they quietly walked at a steady pace, they came to the intersection where Eleventh Street—the street they were on—met up with Main Street. Back on the track of their original path, they felt like perhaps they would survive. Perhaps not all was lost for them. But Kit stopped that train of thought sourly where the others let it run through them. As a rule, she promised to never delude herself. Too many others had been killed for her to just say they would all survive from this point on. So she kept her head out of the clouds, where it had been so very much during her childhood.

She lived with rarely any children around where her house was, so she contented herself with books, watching VHS's on the VCR she'd had in her room, and just playing by herself and doodling. Once she'd even written an entire book in an afternoon. It had been lost, however, and she refused to linger on her past any longer than she had. It always drenched her mood in sorrow.

So, with her mouth set in a firm line and her chin squared, she continued walking. The others; namely Jesse and Taylor; would have considerably fewer problems walking through this town with blood spatters and wrecked places everywhere, simply because they had no memories of the places when everything was so simple, when it was carefree. When you didn't have to worry what was behind, above, and to the sides of you, hunting you down to eat your living flesh as you screamed.

Of course these events would frighten and scar them more deeply than either Erin or Kit, since they had been desensitized to the horror and shock of Umbrella's mutations and virus-tainted freaks, but they didn't know many people here in town. Erin and Kit had, for nearly their whole lives, and just the week before had strolled through the town, lazily greeting those they knew. There were many, and they had seen all their faces distorted by gore and infection in around six hours, in one afternoon.

She knew the viridian-eyed girl was feeling ghostly memories too, it seemed so surreal that this was happening to _this_ town—to _them_, but the cold sting of reality reminded her how harsh the world was. Something that she had known about and nearly grasped all throughout her childhood, making her a rather quiet, serious girl. But, she mused, you learn to move past sorrow and the horrors that plague your subconscious, to live in the now and then instead of dwelling on the past. She had in the last year and a half, and was more like a teenager than she had ever hoped she would ever get to be.

But that may be the last stage of life she would ever get to experience…_if she didn't pay attention!_ She snapped her attention back to the present. Even though it seemed the t-virus infected monstrosities were wreaking havoc and mayhem someplace else, it wouldn't pay to be killed by a straggling zombie or Cerberus, now would it?

"Alright. We're back on Main Street now…" Kit breathed a sigh of relief. The way to her grandparents was considerably shorter now. And beyond that, she could see the great hulking wall of white that was the barricade the government had set up; white dots moving atop it, other figures dressed in darker colours of orange, shooting down a crow or two here or there, containing the infection. At least they could do that much, she sighed in her mind darkly.

"Good." Erin shuddered, shaking off the chills the memories had sent down her spine. "We're nearly there. Perhaps… they'll let us out." Her eyes pleaded, looking like she was praying; almost; to any deity that would listen at that moment. She didn't want her friend to sully herself anymore than she already had.

Lying and sacrificing herself, drawing into her façade, killing undead creatures—which many of them had had distorted faces of those she had loved and known, and holding her friends in her arms in her arms as they bled was enough for the redhead to endure. If she had to add killing a non-infected human to the list—albeit a government lackey trying to kill her and her friends, barring their way to freedom—she would most likely hate herself for the rest of her life.

It was apparent that Kit didn't exactly take human life to be totally worthless. She knew it held worth in all different forms; not just as a human life, but as a person someone had loved at one point in their lives, someone who was a part of someone else's life. She saw it as a network; everyone had worth in her eyes. Except herself, even though she held a different type of respect for herself than she did for others. She saw herself as their protector; someone who was worthy of sacrificing herself to save her friends and guide them through this horror, but not of much else.

She didn't completely understand her friend's view of logically analytical coolness, but accepted it was just something that came with the girl. She looked at the fire truck that lay demolished on its side—it had probably been used as a barricade in the streets, then overturned by the many zombies which lay dead inside the burning heap of metal—and then back to the Masagobi. "Where to, Captain?"

Kit snorted at the nickname, which seemed to be sticking with her now thanks to her best friend, and went over a mental map. They would have to go through a few side streets to get around the barricade, but it wasn't anything too serious. At least they had another half-hour of daylight left. They could certainly make it to her grandparent's house by then, and if not, she was sure they could steal a flashlight from someone's house.

She knew by now it would take longer than how much daylight they had left to escape the town. It had been an acidic feeling burning at her gut all day, and she had just finally given into it, remembering her 'no lying to herself' rule.

"Okay. All we have to do is go through a few side-streets to get around this, and then we'll come out in the alley that goes by my grandparent's house. We can get in there, barricade ourselves in there for awhile and make use of the facilities and such; and then get to the barricade and get the hell out of here."

Jesse and Taylor nodded, and Erin had a grim look upon her face. She looked like she wanted to say something really badly, so Kit nodded to her. The viridian eyes held a look of inflective relief.

"Kit… if I can… I'll go into the house first. Ma'am is probably… And Pap…" She used the nicknames for the redhead's grandparents, pleading with the redhead, who suddenly had a tired, worn look to her eyes and blank face.

"No… No, I'll be able to handle anything in there… but thanks, Erin." She thanked her genuinely, but sounded a bit unsure on the first bit. "Anyway," She hastily interjected. "Let's get moving. Daylight's a-wastin'." She winked to her remaining friends, who laughed and then readied their weapons, then got moving.

--

"No! No_ooo_! H-help me!" A woman's scream pierced the thick shroud of ambience sounds, making everyone shudder.

Taylor turned towards it with wide eyes. "…Mom?" She whispered. Jesse was shocked too. They _knew_ that voice… all too well, it seemed. Kit shook the shock off quickly.

"Taylor… It's too late to help her." They were all looking towards the house that the scream had come from. Tears dribbled down the brunette's cheeks, but she sniffed and nodded her head, the only male left in the group wiping away her tears as she tried to will away the sadness welling in her heart.

"I know… I'm not going to die now just because of that…" Her head tilted downwards, being overshadowed by her bangs. "…She must have come to get me…"

"It doesn't matter… you're getting out of this place, Taylor." Kit spoke lowly, and the other glasses wearer was able to blink away the tears and smile at the redhead who was so determined to get them out.

"T…thank you, Kit…" She whispered, and was only answered by a silent inclination of the Masagobi's head. They then started to move again without any verbal order or suggestion; moving was the only thing they really could do.

--

They went through the alleyways and stuck near the center of the road, where it was unlikely that anything could ambush them. Well, it was a little less likely than if they were on the sidewalk or the side of the street, anyway… the alleys were only so wide in this village.

Soon they came out in an alleyway that opened onto Main Street, and they could see the large fire station… which was unsurprisingly wrecked, and half the building had fallen in on itself, a wayward fire truck stuck halfway into the rubble, and on fire. Everything had gone to hell in the small town for sure, the fifteen-year old redhead surmised grimly. Across from the ruined fire station, and to the right, was her grandparent's house.

It had white siding and a brown roof that was tinged with orange in the last glowing light of the sunset. The blue shutters were obscured by the shadows from the large pine tree in the front yard. Kit cautiously approached, internally preparing herself for whatever may be inside… Including if she would have to kill the infected grandparents inside.

'_Who am I kidding? Nobody can be prepared to kill something that was once someone they loved. That's why it's so hard to try to remember the people in this town… that's why I can't be soft right now.'_ And with that last thought, she checked the front door. Open? Huh. Weird. Kit then signaled for them to follow her, and they entered the house. It smelled lightly of blood and death nearer to the door parallel to the entrance, so Kit immediately went down the carpeted stairs.

"Ma'am? Pap?" She called from habit, wincing as she did so, unable to stop herself. She looked around and her hands covered her mouth, eyes filling with tears.

On the couch her grandparents sat… Blood was spattered everywhere. It wasn't hard to see why. There were gunshot wounds in both of their heads, and she knew that the back of them would be nonexistent. The blood was coating them so much that she couldn't even tell the colour their clothes had once been.

She fell to her knees, numbly staring. Erin was letting the tears run down her face in plain view, too sorrowed by the sight to even think of covering her face. Kit's family had been like her family, too, since the two were like twins. She even had thought of Kit's parents as her second set of parents, since they had always been there for her when she'd needed them. And Ma'am and Pap… they had been like her grandparents as well.

Kit didn't cry. She felt the back of her throat hurting like a bitch and her eyes smarting just as badly, but the tears just wouldn't come, even when she cried out inwardly that it was _okay_ to cry for this. Jesse had gotten one look at the carnage and had forced Taylor back upstairs, and Erin had seen her rare tears before…

_So why couldn't she cry?!_ She felt her hands fist at her sides, the realization of her grandparent's death washing over her body as it had done her mind. She had known they were dead… but hadn't expected anything like this. She couldn't even tell if they had been bitten because all the blood. But, her grandparents were not stupid or weakly minded… They had a superb amount of common sense, actually, and their practical ways had astounded her more than once. So… they must have had their reasons, Kit concluded as she shakily stood.

"Erin… Please… don't cry anymore. They…" She nearly choked, but she hid it well, the experience from singing onstage and covering up mistakes flawlessly helping immensely. She was glad for that training now. "They must have had their reasons… they wouldn't have done this without thinking it through…"

"I…I know." She sniffled, as Kit wiped away her tears gently. They then went back upstairs, closing the door behind them. It's the only burial they could ever give their beloved grandparents… The thought only sobered them more, and strengthened their resolve.

"I…I need to get out of here. The smell… It hurts my throat." Erin choked out. Taylor and Jesse nodded. Kit, having had bad nosebleeds often in her youth wasn't fazed all that much by the smell, but sighed and nodded.

"Alright… I'll… I'll catch up later, okay?" She smiled fakely. They caught it but due to recent events didn't bring it up.

"Okay. See you later, Captain." Erin jokingly saluted; although she was pale, her stomach must be gurgling by now Kit thought, and the other two followed her lead, getting the redhead to laugh.

"Alright. Be careful out there."

They nodded, and then disappeared out the front door. It was silent outside, except for the distant sounds of death and the infected creatures, but it was almost… calm.

She was overwhelmed by it, unable to really feel anything as she numbly moved through the house, touching things gently and smiling at the memories.

The old television she used to lay on her stomach and watch as a child… the digital picture frame that played songs that she'd gotten them as a Christmas present a few years ago… the plastic cups and glass dishes she'd always helped to wash or dry… the table she had eaten at and cleaned for Ma'am almost every time she would visit… The bathroom, where she could remember Ma'am doing her makeup and painting her nails when she was littler… Pap's abandoned pipe that he'd smoked forever and a day, the smell of tobacco still clinging to it and making her nose crinkle… Ma'am's doll room, with the porcelain dolls she kept, and her jewelry box… their bedroom, where she could remember sitting on the bed as her grandma had given her stockings to wear back when she had hated socks on her sensitive feet… Her mother's old bedroom where she slept when she stayed overnight.

On the dark green, pink-flower dotted bedspread, her bow lay. If Shane was still alive, she wanted him to have it. He was a great marksman and had whooped her ass at archery back when she had had outdoor recreation with him. It would have been a good weapon for him… She had gotten it from her Uncle Mike years ago.

There was also a game case laying on the bedspread, and it brought tears to her eyes almost… but she felt so numb, so tired… She didn't even jump when she heard the gunshots and the screams of her friends. She shuddered…

'_I've failed… I've ultimately failed.'_ Her failure was a devastating truth. She should have known better than to think that she—an untrained, pathetic fifteen year old would have been able to get her and her friends out of this nightmare alive, not even thinking on if they would have been sane afterwards. She had been a goddamned fool to think they had a sliver of a chance…

'_But… it's all over now. They're dead… those were their screams. Apparently the government doesn't give a rat's ass about if there are survivors in this whole mess. Besides, why did I think they would let us out or get away with it if we escaped?' _Her mouth twisted in a humorless smile.

They were shooting everything, undead or alive because they were covering it all up. Just like the Raccoon City incident, only this would most likely be totally hush-hush. Nobody gets in, nobody gets out, and no word of the nightmare would be spread. No comforting words to the families of the infected and deceased, other than a false answer that they had died in some type of explosion.

Her eyes flashed. The nuclear bomb they would set off in order to sanitize the area… That was it! They would say it was an accidental explosion… she could see the headlines now. 'Tragedy in Ohio! Lives lost due to mysterious nuclear explosion'.

She gave a humorless laugh to match her humorless smile. Of _course_ they would cover this up. It wasn't too hard to give a few guesses at how the virus may have even escaped into the town.

The rest of the world may not even give half a damn, either, other than the nuke. They would start wars over accusations, and in a few decades it would be forgotten. Probably wouldn't even be written into the history books, either. It was just Ohio; who really cared about the birthplace of aviation other than the occupants of the state? Probably nobody. It was such a slip-under-the-radar place to most people that a cover-up would be easily done.

She shook her head, and sat on the bed. She took the bands off the braided bits of her hair, and hummed a little as she unbraided the hair carefully. All that was left was to sit here and wait to die.

She looked at the handgun in its holster, her backpack still on. But then turned her gaze away, back to the wall. She could never kill herself. Not in a million years. She saw it as a kind of weakness; others would think she was strong. She scoffed. Strength or weakness had never really mattered in her eyes; but she had been the rock for many people… rocks were there for people to hold on to, not something they would fail to grasp and fall down a waterfall of searing pain. She sighed, her decision made.

She refused to die by a bullet if she could help it. Hence why she was inside and wasn't out there, sacrificing herself beside her friend's corpses. No. She would die with dignity. As she untied her hair and brushed it with the brush she found on the small vanity in the tiny room, she remembered that everyone always _loved_ her hair down.

She loved it down too, but sometimes it was too much of a hassle. She kept her mind focused on the wall, on brushing her hair… and the memories of better times. Before all this had happened, her life and so many others turned upside down, flipped inside out and utterly destroyed in a single afternoon. It had only been about eight or nine hours since it had truly started to go to hell in the town.

She placed the brush down and sighed, looking out the window. It was almost dark outside, the twilight beautiful even in this nightmare. She'd always loved the beauty nature had always held to her artistic eye; even in this nightmare, she could enjoy its uniqueness and simplicity.

A blank smile was still on her lips. She sat on the bed once more and something brushed her thigh. She picked the plastic case up once more, and traced her fingers over the cover.

Resident Evil zero… She had always loved the Resident Evil series, even before she truly loved horror movies and had been scared half to death by the first one. She had brought this and a few other games to play on her GameCube, and had ended up beating it once again instead of playing the other games. She had left when it was late—around midnight actually, and had been so sleepy that she had accidentally left it here.

She hadn't been able to come here before now… And she stared at the cover, and then hugged it to her chest as she stared out the window. Surely, they would enact the sanitation of this place well before the night was over. As a light suddenly brightened the sky, she smiled humorlessly, the look having dropped from her face as it had looked at the cover of the game case she now sought a tiny bit of comfort in hugging.

Thanks to the series and her determination to beat all of them… she'd survived to the end of the nightmare. But, now she would die, everyone's story untold… She didn't really feel like she was about to die, but readily accepted death. She didn't want to be a spirit, chained to this land long after her death in torment of the goals she was unable to fulfill.

She closed her eyes against the light. She didn't want to go blind before she died. She hugged the case closer to her body, and two tear leaked from her eyes, one from each, and made tracks down them as her body was enveloped in the blinding light which her eyes were clenched against.

Then… all she knew was darkness as an enormous rumble roared in her ears.

* * *

**K.L.K- Alright, that's the end of the fifth chapter and the official end of the prologue part of this fanfic!**

**Jill- (squawks) What?! That's hardly an ending to a prologue part of a fanfic!**

**K.L.K- (grins) Ah, that's what you think Jilly. Remember… it's called 'Her New Beginning'. This is hardly an ending. (Raises an eyebrow and they finally get it)**

**Jill-…Ohhh.**

**Leon- YAY! You're healthy again! (Hugs her as she rolls her eyes and pushes him off her after a quick squeeze) **

**K.L.K- Yeah, the medicine tasted like crap but I got better and could function. I'm sorry this chapter was a bit late-ish, but it was hard to find inspiration when you have nearly two weeks of snow days. I finally just got off my lazy ass and finished this chapter.**

**Wesker- Ah. I see. Good thing you're back to normal… when you're sick you get weird ideas.**

**K.L.K- (chuckles) That I do, Wesker… That I do.**

**Claire- The description of the grandparent's death was…err… disturbing, just a tad.**

**K.L.K- (shrugs) it was meant to. **

**Chris- and you didn't write the other three's deaths in detail… it was kinda off-screened, almost.**

**K.L.K- Yup. I decided to mix it up a little, instead of an upfront death and description; I just made it a little vague. Plus that got her into thinking about why they wouldn't have made it out anyway—a government cover up.**

**Wesker- Brilliantly put-in, I must say. You had that in mind for awhile, didn't you?**

**K.L.K- (nods absently as she sips at her pop) Yup, since the first chapter, in fact. Alright, let's wrap this up. Please—!**

**Steve- (pops out from behind the couch, scaring the shit out of K.L.K) Review! (Smiles at K.L.K……Then dives behind Claire when he sees the murderously intended gleam in her eyes)**


	6. Waking Up, Billy, and Running

**Her New Beginning **

_The door to safety is shut._

_There is no turning back…_

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE: **Alright, I hope you noticed the change of the sentences below the title; because now we're on to Resident Evil 0! Wahoo! I love this game, mostly because Billy's in it… and Rebecca's voice isn't as annoying as the old RE1 game, my god that was annoying. I never actually completed the Chris scenario just because of her voice, and all the times when you'd either have to save her or play as her! Harsh, but… Anyway, I hope you like this, because I actually try to play the games, and THEN write. Yeahhh, I'm that dedicated to getting details down… Also, Kit no longer has the shotgun or paper cutter blade, but she does have the knife she got from Whellic still. She still has her handgun, and I'm making it the same model as the S.T.A.R.S one that Rebecca has, minus the little S.T.A.R.S logo, of course… That and I got rid of her dependency on her glasses, think of it as a nice little thing for her. Enjoy!

**CHAPTER TITLE:** Waking up, Billy, and Running

* * *

_Chirp… Chirp… Chirp…_

'…_Huh…?'_ She asked herself as she forced herself to open her eyes, but was unable to do much else. Her body refused to listen to her commands to get up or move more than a half-hearted twitch. Her vision was so fuzzed and unfocused that it was useless that she'd used her willpower to pry open her eyelids—but then they focused, and she found herself staring up at a sliver of stormy sky that she could see through a break in the canopy of trees, grey clouds tinged by the colours of a sunset. Or sunrise… she had no real grasp of time at the moment.

Slowly, her numb body regained her senses and the feeling of touch. Dampness soaked into her back… what was she lying on? She guessed a forest floor, judging by the cushy dampness her back was pressed into and the hard, thin and bumpy thing she guessed was a twig that was sticking her in the side.

She was in a forest? The last thing she remembered was… She shook her head. She couldn't really remember where she was before. It was strange. She could remember herself clearly, as well as what she had been taught through lessons in school, and had a strong knowing of who she was. All she remembered other than that kind of stuff was a group of about ten people… maybe seven, or eight? Maybe more. Her head ached. She couldn't remember how many of the people had been male or female, and she couldn't bring any faces or names, or even voices to mind.

She slowly brought herself up, the stick poking her in the side finally annoying her enough for her to hoist herself into a sitting position. She winced as the dampness soaked into the seat of her jeans now. She looked herself over; to make sure she had everything.

There was a hard metal thing on the collar of her black tee-shirt… a slightly bent hairpin? She shrugged slightly, and continued her exploration. Her jeans had spots of blood spotted in places, and the white rubber on her converse-knock offs had blood stains in places too. _'Where the hell did that come from?'_

A book bag lay against her thigh, and something nagged at her that _something_ was missing. It was too light when she picked it up, but it hurt her head to think about what could be missing. The book bag was black, and the front flap had a diagonal diamond pattern with skulls and two rows of studs decorating it. On the clasps that connected the backpack-like straps to the main bag, there were soda-can tabs.

Her hair was down and it brushed her lower back, it being slightly dampened. She moved her fingers through the thick, wavy hair as she shuddered, picking twigs and pieces of moss out of the glorious mane of hair as she pulled a face.

After she had finished that, she reflexively put two fingers on the bridge of her nose and pushed them gently towards her forehead… and confusedly felt by her ears and by her nose once more. _'Didn't I have glasses…? Oh well, it might be a reflex from when I was younger. I don't see any glasses lying about, and I can see perfectly clear without them… plus there isn't a glasses case in my book bag.' _She sighed, her head aching when she tried to remember if she did indeed wear glasses… So she quit trying.

She obviously had amnesia. She wasn't a stupid girl—in fact she was smart, and she knew the signs of amnesia. Namely, memory loss was the only one she seemed to be suffering. It must only be a case of slight amnesia, she mused, and with a slight shudder she added, _'And my mind must have a pretty damn good reason to be blocking specific memories. Something tells me the loss is permanent, and that I really don't want to remember.'_ She also had a feeling that she would gain nothing from remembering it, that whatever had been contained in the memories was no nonexistent. She shrugged to herself, accepting that answer to put a stop the damn aching of her head from trying to remember something that she couldn't.

She then rooted through the contents of the bag for a little while more, finding some gauze, band aids scattered in the bottom, a few bottles of medicine—a bottle of ibuprofen, a bottle of migraine medicine, and a bottle full of pills she recognized as Tums— a pack of unopened crackers and half a bag of dried, mixed fruit. That would come in handy later, when she was hungrier. She didn't feel hungry enough to eat right now.

In the very back of the backpack, which was a zippered pocket that the straps came out of—she guessed from the clasps on the top of the bag at its sides that it could be converted from a messenger bag to a backpack—she found a extra pair of underwear she must keep in there for emergencies, along with a few tampons. She raised an eyebrow at that. She could remember that it wasn't nearly time for her period, but couldn't recall the date of her last period. Oh well, it didn't bother her so she had to trust in her gut.

She dug into her pockets as she shrugged off her unzipped hoodie—it was much too warm out here to be wearing something like that. She just thanked the kami—she could remember the little Japanese she knew, it seems—that the jeans were loose. She brought out a slightly ripped paper ID card. It read;

_Kit Masagobi. Age fifteen. Freshman, grade nine. Birthday; February 23 ……… _

It was ripped off where she assumed the name of the high school she had gone to had been typed, and it was ripped right where the year of her birth would have been. She shrugged and put the ripped piece of paper back into her pocket. _'What a cheap school, if it printed the student ID's on freaking _paper_. It must have been a public school, no surprises there.' _She scoffed. That's all that was in her pockets save for a piece of lint which she flicked away.

She readjusted her bra straps, straightening her clothes and sighing. Her ass would feel damp for a little bit after she finally got up, she knew, because she could feel the dampness soaking into her underwear. _'Great. And I'm who-knows-how-far from civilization. All I see are trees…'_

She sighed, and then twitched as she noticed the handgun at her side, and a few pouches with either her two extra clips or the loose handgun bullets she had in them. She could remember the type of bullets right off her head—nine by nineteen parabellum rounds… she didn't know how she'd memorized that but was consoled by the fact she wouldn't have to try to figure out the type of ammunition that fit her handgun.

There was also a combat knife clipped to her belt securely by its black sheath and she felt a little warmth seep into her checks when she ran her hand over the hilt of the knife._ 'I'm a combatant?'_ She wondered, but as she aimed the gun for a second, then slid it back into her holster, she knew it to be true to some extent. Now that she thought about it, blood and gore didn't bother her, and killing something that was trying to kill her seemed alright in her books. Not to mention the blood on her jeans and shoes had to come from somewhere, but she was pretty sure she didn't kill anything that hadn't tried to kill her first, since it didn't bother her.

She finally got a good look around, and saw that there was a road pretty far away, but still well within walking and seeing distance. It had begun to darken outside, and everything was shaded in blues. She growled in irritation; she had no flashlight! Not even a match to light for a teeny bit of illumination… and she had a really, _really_ strong feeling in her gut that clearly conveyed that she didn't want to be stuck in this place all night without a light. Something made her uneasy at the lack of any other animal's sounds than the incessant crickets. She was pacified by that small thing, at least. You could always count on the wildlife to tell you if something dangerous was nearby.

_Ahwoooooooo!_ A dog howled. She flinched, muscles tensing before she forcefully relaxed them. It might have just been wolves, or coyotes, or just regular wild dogs, she told herself crossly. Most likely if she left them alone they'd leave her alone in return. She still couldn't keep the dark ball of dread from her stomach, but she shook it off somewhat.

"Hmm… Alright, time to get up." She sighed, having glanced around, enjoying the dark, shadowed forest for a minute even though she felt uneasy, and she got to her feet easily. She began to walk towards the road, knowing that her only chance to get to a town or something that night was to hopefully hitch a ride with someone—even though that was kind of dangerous—and get to the nearest town.

After that, though, she was uncertain at what she'd be able to do. After all, she had no guardian and she sure as hell wasn't old enough to drive. She knew she was somewhere in the United States… where she was a citizen, she knew she was born in the U.S, but couldn't remember what state she'd been born in. She just remembered the place she had lived in being simple and blessed with nature… That's all she could bring forth without her mind protesting with a sharp pain. _'Alright, alright…Wari, wari. I'll stop trying to remember something I can't.'_ She grumbled inwardly.

As she walked towards the dirt road, she frowned. Something felt…wrong. She felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle as it raised, goose pimples appearing on her arms. _'My gut's telling me to be helluva careful…'_ She mused. _'I better listen to it.'_

All of a sudden she heard the sound of a vehicle on a dirt road… The snapping of fallen limbs and the sound of the motor—obviously without a muffler, she might add—was deafening in the quiet forest, and she suddenly got a bit anxious, absently noticing the crickets were hushing up. "What…?" She murmured, before the headlights came into her view, and she lazily traced the blue van's path. With a hint of interest she noted that it was such an odd thing for a security—that's what type of van it appeared to be, anyway—van was out _here_, in the middle of nowhere. She honestly didn't think the road would be on most maps.

Her eyes widened when a pack of dogs leapt in front of the van, the driver swerving sharply to the left in shock—towards her. The van barreled towards her and she ran to the side, not taking her eyes off the vehicle. It was out of control. It clipped several low-lying branches and a few trunks before a feral dog crashed through the large side window on the passenger side.

Her eyes widened further. There was something wrong with those dogs, now that they were closer… she could see the gruesome blood they were covered with, rotted flesh exposing bone at some points. They were… dare she say it… undead. That's the only explanation she could come up with for the grisly look they had.

She hadn't needed to dodge to the side, anyway, she huffed. The van toppled over a few yards ahead of where she stood, coming to a halt with a screech and a yell from inside the back of it, making her wince as she drew her arms up to clasp at her chest at the blaring noise as she jumped a little backwards. That reflex was something she hated, and she dropped her hands to her side soon after the shock had worn off, and then her right hand ghosted over the handle of her gun.

Those things didn't care, obviously, if you bothered them or not, and would go for the kill. They'd even made that van crash just to get a meal. They chewed on the two officers, and one was screaming as the claws of one dog sunk into his eye, taking it out and ruining it. Before she knew what she'd done, she'd whipped her gun out and shot a dog through the neck, missing her target of the head just barely, cursing her aim as it went through the rotten flesh and pierced the chest of the passenger cop. He stopped screaming, that's for sure.

Blood bubbled through his lips and his eyes rolled back in his head as the dogs descended upon his form. She looked at the scene boredly. "Well then." She somehow knew he was a goner as soon as he had gotten bitten, and his one eye had been scratched out. Perhaps it was better for her bullet to have sent him into shock so he wasn't fully conscious for the dog's meal; she mused, and then decided to check out if the person in the back of the van was alright.

She snuck around the dogs, giving them a wide berth, and approached the van's doors which moved a little; like they were being kicked. Kit then grabbed the handle and grunted as she pulled it open. She felt like there was someone in there; someone she should help. So, she did so, interested to see whom was in the back of the van. She didn't feel the need to be scared. She did have weapons, after all, and she had decent aim.

A foot nearly struck her in the face, and she jerked back. "Hey!" She growled lowly, anger dissipating when she saw the man half handcuffed inside the van, awkwardly lying on the wall of the toppled van, struggling to release himself from the damn cuff's restraint. "Come on," She hopped into the van, careful of the doors, and started to beat at the cuff that was attached to a rail with the butt of her handgun, and his eyes were widened in shock, his look clearly going 'Why-the-hell-are-you-helping-me?'.

But he quickly started pulling at his bonds and the weakened metal—it had been battered when the van had gone off the road and he'd been flung from his seat—finally broke, and then Kit held her hand out for him after she'd gotten out of the van as she smiled lightly, him still staring at her like she was off her rocker. She ignored that, used to being thought of as a little bit insane; at least she wasn't bothered by it much, dropped the smile and shook her head slightly at his stunned behavior.

"Come on! Those dogs aren't gonna wait for you to get your fuckin' pansy ass out of there Mister muscly!" She snapped quietly at him and he gave her a glare, which morphed into a small chuckle and a grin at her 'just-joking-I'm-being-sarcastic' grin which was accompanied by a wink. With that he took her hand and his feet finally hit the forest floor, which caught a dog's attention much to the worry of the redhead. Unfortunately the man didn't catch the gleam in her eyes quickly enough, which wasn't surprising considering the darkness.

"Why the hell would you—?" He was cut off as she aimed behind him, and shot a dog that had leapt at him.

"No time for talk. Run!" he got out a gun which had flown through the window in the van that the two had been taunting him through, he'd managed to somehow grab it and stick it in his belt, and followed her lead through the forest, stumbling blindly away from the dogs, shooting at the canines every so often.

They'd been running for so long that Kit thought her ribs would end up piercing her lungs with the way they were aching—and she cursed herself for not wearing an undershirt with a built in bra that day, she knew that would have helped her out immensely with that—and she was getting seriously pissed off at the dogs. The man she had helped out of the van was more accustomed to her presence, and seemed to think she was helpful enough to keep around that he'd managed to shoot a dog before it had nabbed her about ten minutes ago. At least, it had seemed like ten minutes ago, but she couldn't be sure. She never was good with keeping time without a watch; she could remember that much without her head aching.

She stumbled over a root but caught herself effortlessly and panted. The guy she was with, with his muscles must be holding up a hell of a lot better than she was. She wasn't inactive or anything, she was actually quite energetic and healthy—but Mister muscly here probably lifted weights way more than she did. With that she frowned, and nearly fell down again. _'Right! Set my mind on getting the hell away from these hellhounds, got it.'_ She spoke hastily and resolutely in her mind.

Then the clouds decided to start slowly releasing the storm she knew had been coming, and she couldn't keep the breathy "Fuck." From escaping her mouth, her companion who was running and stumbling in the darkness beside her chuckling as they panted.

Soon they came upon a strange sight… A train. A wrecked train…In the middle of a forest? She couldn't complain though. This forest was massive, she guessed, so it was extremely unlikely that there was shelter from the hellhounds anywhere else for a mile or so. And she really, really needed to rest, as did the man she was running with.

She saw the light within glimmer on the spidery-cracked door's window, and she pointed towards it even though the guy she had saved couldn't see in the darkness any more than she could, the raindrops dampening their hair and clothes slightly. She sprinted towards it; even though all she wanted to do was fall over, she had a superb amount of survival instincts and discipline over her body through her mind; and she heaved the door open, her companion dashing through it before she threw herself inside and shut the door, the dogs bashing into it harmlessly.

"Damn hellhounds… hah, that's what I'm gonna call them… Cerberi, after Cerberus." She laughed, gulping air, resting against the seats as was he.

"Heh." He thought that was funny enough to laugh at? Well then, score for the redhead, she cheered inwardly, breathing through her mouth and nose alternatively. She'd learned that it helped the body recover from running faster _somewhere_. She couldn't think of exactly where, though. She just had to guess it was in her youth. She noticed her companion doing the same thing. She blinked… she didn't even know his name! _'Well,'_ she thought wryly, _'No time is as good as the present to make introductions, eh?'_

She held out her hand, and he stared at her, making a noise in the back of his throat. "My name's Kit. Kit Masagobi. Yours?" She spoke pleasantly for having just run for her life from monsters after waking up in the middle of nowhere, she thought absently.

He blinked and stared at her.

She gave a grin. "Hey, either you tell me your name or I'm just gonna resort to calling you Mister muscly." Her eyes twinkled, and he slowly reached out and grabbed her hand.

"My name's Billy… Billy Coen." He shook her hand, and she gave a bright smile.

"Well, Mister Coen…" At his wince, she rolled her eyes. "Okay then, _Billy_." He gave a smirk at that, and she rolled her eyes again.

"Hey… how old are you?" He asked curiously, looking her over since he could now see her.

She had long crimson hair that fell down past her lower hips, it dampened slightly from the rain, and he could see dyed black ends on the longer layer. She wore a black tee-shirt that showed a little cleavage and some baggy jeans that had spots of blood on them, along with some blood-spattered black converse knock-offs. She had a necklace that looked like handcuffs that were interlocked on her neck, and they were right over the hollow on her collarbone.

Two small keys glittered at the back of her neck, probably near a clasp of some sort, and it made him wonder if they actually opened the handcuffs. The belt that held up the jeans was black and studded; with a few missing studs that he could see, and had a silvery belt buckle that had a strange symbol on it. Some eyeliner still rimmed her eyes, but he liked the fact that she didn't overdo the makeup. She was actually very pretty and curvy—he had to guess that she was seventeen or eighteen. Her warm but dark brown eyes showed a brightness of awareness and a sharpness that betrayed her intelligence. Now that he'd seen that, he had to guess that she was at least eighteen.

As he looked her over, she looked him over. He had tanned skin and brown hair, with blue eyes, and his arm—his right one was tattooed in a tribal design that went all the way up his arm in black, his left arm non-tattooed and had the broken, useless cuffs hanging from then still. His hair was pretty cool and she knew he liked it and took care of it, and it had two little bits of hair that stuck out and down, onto his forehead. His face was handsome and that of an obviously military-trained person. He had dog tags around his neck and had a purple tank top on, that was tucked into the jeans he wore, which he wore dark brown boots under. All in all, she had to admit he was physically attractive but felt in her heart that he would be more of a friend than someone of that type of relationship. Besides, she enjoyed being single and he was a little too old for her—she had to gauge him at the age of twenty-five to twenty six. She guessed the latter, though.

"Fifteen, why?" She tilted her head, pale skin glowing a little in the light within the train.

"Daaa_amn_." He whistled. "I had to guess you were at least eighteen." _'It's a good thing I wasn't checking her out then.'_

She shrugged. "I've always looked older than I was. I've acted like it too, I think…" She frowned and bit at her lip, then nodded as she brightened. "Yeah! I have."

An eyebrow rose on his face. "Err… What you mean you _think_?"

She seemed surprised at that but sighed. "I have a slight case of amnesia… I can remember myself clearly but some stuff's just pretty much gone!" She tapped her fingers gently on her temple. "Oh well, right? My brains gotta have a reason to block those memories. Some things are better off being forgotten."

He nodded to that, knowing it was true. A question popped into his head, and he couldn't resist the irresistible urge to ask it. "Well… I heard a gunshot outside the van, earlier… That was you, right?" He couldn't imagine her shooting someone, but then again…

"Oh. That. Yeah… that was me. I have pretty good aim, but I shot a dog in the neck and it went through and got one of the guards in the chest." She shrugged, and he was slightly impressed with the way that the thought of seeing someone die like that didn't seem to bother her much. She seemed a little desensitized, actually, with the way she'd handled the dogs. "He was already a meal for those dogs. I guess I did him a favor, because he slipped into shock from being shot."

He shrugged. Then they took the opportunity to look around their shelter. A small lump came into their throats when it was apparent that this was a civilian's train… a rather cushy one, too. That and there was blood and a few bodies scattered on some of the expensive seats. It was still pretty fresh, too. They'd only just begun to rot and stink a little with the heat.

"Well, I suggest we find a place to rest and hide out until morning in here." She spoke out after a few minutes of silence.

He thought it over. "Sure, kid."

She gave him a stone-hard glare. "Hey. If I'm going to call you Billy, you're gonna call me by my name, alright? I'm not a kid; anyway, I'm a woman." She spoke exasperatedly. "Jeeze."

"A woman." He rolled his eyes. "Riiiight. I suppose you had a boyfriend and kissed him _all_ the time." He mocked a little, and she smacked him on the arm.

"Billy, I mean I'm a woman obviously from having my period already, don't be a jackass, and you know if I was any other girl I'd kick you in the nuts for that. Besides, I've never kissed anyone, I'll have you know." She told him with a smirk.

He was stunned at that. "Seriously?" She gave a nod. "Wow. Alright, I'm sorry about that jab." And then he pulled a face. "And did you have to say that to a guy? Kinda gross."

She snorted. "Hah. No problems there Billy. I don't really care about that stuff; I'm not the average girl. And hey, you know me now, you're just gonna have to deal with me telling you stuff without any sugar-coating for your sensitive virgin ears." She mocked right back, and he laughed, as did she. "Besides, guys are jackasses sometimes when it comes to dating. That's why I usually just make friends."

"Can you remember any of your old friends?" He felt a little bad for her when she chewed at her lip a little and shook her head.

"Nah. All I can remember is that I had a lot of guy friends…"

"Why're you in the middle of a forest, anyway?" He wondered. "Not that I'm ungrateful, but…"

She shrugged. "I don't really know. I woke up on the ground and started to head towards the road, intent on either hitchhiking to civilization or walking along it to find a town or something. In case you're wondering, I'm pretty damn sure I don't have any family left, and I don't really have anywhere to go." She sighed, pushing her hands through her mussed hair.

He felt _really_ bad for her now. "No family, huh?" She shook her head. "Well then… I guess I'm stuck with ya for a little while, right?"

She stuck her tongue out at him, and then got up. "Oh yeah, big tragedy for you." She chuckled, as did he, and they started going through the train, before they quickly found a compartment that had bunk beds and a sink, along with a typewriter someone had been using to type up a report that was too boring for him to read yet somehow Kit comprehended—"It's about how viruses mutate, it's just some basic medical stuff. Jeeze… If you use context clues you can pretty much decode all the fancy-smancy language down to a simple point."—Which he had just stared at her for that, before she'd deposited her somewhat dingy book bag on the bottom bunk and claimed it to be hers.

She went over to the sink and threw her hair over her shoulders, and then began to wash her face a little, glad her makeup was waterproof. The skin underneath her eyes was still light even though she washed some foundation off, wondering why she was wearing it in the first place. As she washed her face, Billy sighed behind her, sitting on her bunk.

"Kit…" It caught her attention and she grunted, letting him know she was listening as she moved on to scrubbing her hands. "I'm a criminal, you know. You seem pretty calm for being around a murderer." He spoke sadly, and that right there spoke volumes to Kit.

"Billy." She spoke softly, turning around after drying her face off a little with a towel that she'd found near the sink. "I believe you're innocent."

He blinked. "Why?"

She shrugged, and gave a little laugh. "Hell, I dunno. But both you and I know how to survive, right?" He gave a nod. "Well then, we trust our guts. And my gut's telling me that you're innocent. Plain and simple. Plus, had you been a murderer, you could have killed me by now and gotten out of here, and started a new life or a new string of crimes. Besides… That didn't seem like the usual transport for a murderer. It was a little… hush-hush-ish, if you get my drift."

He shrugged after getting over the shock that she was so intuitive and trusting, but she had a point.

"And what the hell, man? That's my bunk!" She flung herself on the bunk next to Billy, who laughed along with her. "Besides… If you'd been a murderer, they would have transported you to a place with a bunch more security. But I know that you would have taken the chance to get away anyway." She admitted easily. "I would have done the same thing, in your place, actually. Death or life? Easy choice. Anyway," She interjected into her own sentence, "We'd better get some rest." She got up and locked the door, and put the toppled over chair in the room under the door knob to keep it closed should the lock be picked or if the mechanism should fail. She also put the blinds over the window that had the light misty rain distorting the darkness outside, and then smiled at the sight of Billy climbing into the top bunk, shoes and all. He still wanted to be ready to run, huh? She couldn't really blame him.

She however took her shoes off and placed them on the floor, rubbing her somewhat sore feet. "Oww, Ow! Damn running… Man, I hate running."

She could almost see Billy's amused face as he asked, "Why?"

"Because I'm not exactly made for running." She pointed out and chuckled, then lay down on the bed, kicking a few books off the small bed. "Well, nighty-night. Wake me up if something happens, alright?" She asked, yawning and suddenly really tired.

"Alright. And vice versa, okay Kit?" All he received was a short 'Mm-hmm' from the redhead before she fell asleep. He gave a soft smile at his new companion. Even though he couldn't really trust a lot of people, she wasn't likely to betray him or turn him in. As she had said, she had no one and nowhere to go, so she had no real motive to do anything against him. And… she trusted her gut and intuitive nature on if he was innocent or not. That astounded him about the girl. "You're one of a kind, kid." And with that he slowly fell into a light, dreamless sleep.

* * *

**K.L.K- Aaaaand so ends the sixth chapter!**

**Jill-… Okay…**

**Billy- So, you inserted her into the story as helping me get away from the wrecked van?**

**K.L.K- Mm-hmm.**

**Billy-… Err, okay. And we're friendly?**

**K.L.K- Well, she doesn't exactly tote a badge like Becca does. She has no real reason to betray you. That, and she has the oddest quality to attract friendship with her uniqueness, remember?**

**Billy- Ah, I see.**

**Wesker- So, will how she got into our universe ever be explained?**

**K.L.K- (shakes her head) Nope. **

**Wesker-… Alright then.**

**Claire- Anyway… (Eye-twitch) Why does everyone duck behind **_**me**_** when they're about to be mauled by you?! Grah, _Steve_!**

**Steve- Eep! (runs away into the Closet of Character's Rooms)**

**K.L.K- Well that takes care of Mister Burnside for now. (Chuckles)**

**Wesker- Careful, K.L.K, I do believe that was reminiscent of me.**

**K.L.K- (rolls eyes) Riiiight Wesker. Alright, I'd better wrap this up. Who's going to say it this time around? (Has given up on getting to ever say 'please review' ever again around these people)**

**Ashley- Please Review!**

**K.L.K- (stares blankly at the blonde)**

**Ashley- Err… Help me Leon! (Dodges behind Leon)**

**Leon- (wide-eyed)… (Acts like he heard something) Ada, wait! (runs off leaving Ashley exposed and pouting as K.L.K laughs)**


	7. Cops, Leeches, and Kindness

**Her New Beginning **

_The door to safety is shut._

_There is no turning back…_

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE: **Wow. What the hell, I'm updating this a lot! I just updated the sixth chapter and now I'm working on the seventh. The heck? (Laughs) Oh well. It seems being pleasantly tired is working to my advantage, ne? Anywho, I hope I got Billy's character okay… since we only see him in RE0—although I will bring him back sometime later, and he'll pop up sometimes—so all we really got from the game was that he wasn't such a bad guy, he was kinda sad that things had turned out this way, he has a strong sense of right and wrong, and that he's sarcastic and has a good sense of humor, and has a bit of a soft spot for Becca. Yeahhh. Oh well, that's all I got from my first play through of the game, but I'm playing it again so no worries. Aaaaand I made a mistake… Billy has grey-blue eyes. Whoopsie? Enjoy the seventh chapter!

**CHAPTER TITLE:** Cops, Leeches and Kindness

* * *

Around two hours later a masculine yawn broke through the now much stronger pitter-patter of rain, and calculative brown eyes searched the place he'd woken up in. It took a second, but everything rushed back to him.

He was stuck on a train in the middle of the Raccoon Forest—he was pretty sure of that—and he'd escaped execution… A tiny, mumbled and incoherent cry from the bunk below him reminded him immediately why he was sleeping on the top bunk and not the bottom, and he got down quietly and carefully, cursing himself for wearing his goddamned boots to sleep in.

Kit lay in the bottom bunk, curled up. She almost looked like she was in a fetal position, with the way she was curled up into herself, her right hand underneath her head, the other clutched into a fist that rested on the white sheets. Her face was strained and she was even paler than before; having been ghostly pale compared to his tanned skin, body twitching as if she was running.

He nearly slapped himself. It was probably about when they'd run from the dogs, of course she would be running in her dreams. She had said that she just woke up, and didn't really know where she was… It seemed like a pretty good basis for a nightmare to him.

Running from feral, obviously undead dogs in a nearly pitch black forest, unable to really aim a gun because they had been stumbling in the dark… and with a person she'd saved but didn't know, none-the-less. And she had lost memories… She was probably a little lost on the situation but seemed to make the best of it.

"B…Billy…" She whimpered, him snapping out of it, and he started to try to wake her up in a variety of ways.

--

_Tree's branches whipped her arms and weeds tried to wrap around her ankles to trip her. She stumbled on as quickly as she could; trying to keep up with the stranger she had saved. She couldn't even tell what he looked like, other than he was muscled._

_Her ribs ached so badly and her hips were starting to stiffen up too, her body pleading for rest. But no, she pushed on, desperate for survival… Desperate to not become the next meal for those hellhounds._

_A cry of pain and utter horror tore from her throat when she felt the ground slam into her, her ankle smarting as bad as her ribs, accompanied by a loud crack. Broken. She'd gotten it hooked under a damn tree root that had stuck from the ground precariously._

"_Help!" She called to the man, but bit her tongue. "No, run! Save yourself—AHH!" She screamed, tears running from her eyes as the dogs ripped into her flesh, ruining her clothes. She heard the footsteps of the man rapidly fade, and a bitter smile came upon her face._

_This was the end… A wave of stink rushed over her face, and something wet dripped onto it as well. She didn't want to know if it was drool or blood. She really didn't care. _

_All she could do was to stare through fear-frozen eyes as a tiny glint of light made her aware a dog's jaws were headed for her head. She quickly closed her eyes and screamed, preparing herself for death._

--

"Kit! Hey, Kit! Wake up!" He shook her roughly. The gentle shaking hadn't stirred her in the slightest, and she gasped, trying not to scream as she was immediately awake, the horrors of the nightmare still relaying into her head. Her hands covered her mouth, and she could remember everything instantly. She always could when she woke up. She considered it quite helpful, actually, but it was far from her mind as her shoulders shook with involuntary shudders.

The train. Billy. She was safe… for now, anyway, and she hadn't died in the forest. She tried to calm herself, her heart beating like she'd just run a marathon.

He squatted there, face almost level with hers, hand braced against the bunk's pillar-like rod. Her eyes were… so scared, he shuddered. Even though she was desensitized to blood and gore, a nightmare always struck you at the core. He knew that, and he also knew the scared glint in the dark, warm brown depths didn't belong there. It felt _wrong_ to see her scared this badly.

"…Was it the dogs?" He asked quietly, after the fear had disappeared from her eyes and she seemed a bit upset with herself.

"…Yes." She answered quietly, rising up to sit on the bunk, arms wrapped around her legs as she drew them up to her chest. "I……I almost never dream, though…" She whispered.

He made a noise that was conveyed as a non-verbal question.

"Well…" She sighed, pushing her right hand through her hair, trying to figure out why she'd dreamt that horrible dream. "Usually, when I sleep… It's just a period of darkness, or it's like I never even lost consciousness… like I blinked and several hours just decided to fly by. It's been that way for a while now."

He nodded, clearly listening to her.

"The dream… Forget it." Her face turned stony. "It was a stupid nightmare. Just fear striking when it can, when I have no freaking control… Sorry I woke you." She added, clearly not going back to sleep.

"Kid, nightmares get everyone. Stop beating yourself up about it. Nobody can guard against them. You can't control your dreams." He said, and she sighed, knowing he was right.

"I know that." She acknowledged quietly.

"It's okay to be scared about those things out there… alright?" Billy said carefully, and she gave him a half-hearted smile. That's all she could muster.

"I know that. But the dogs… The cerberi, they're something that shouldn't plague me in my dreams. I don't really know how I know that… I just kind of do…" She frowned, her eyes going to her weapons which she'd had the forethought to lay on the end of the bunk where her feet would have been, had she been laying on her back and stretched out. "I have enough skill to run from them and survive, but…" She gave a dry laugh. "My goddamn overactive imagination." Her eyes lit up and she seemed happy to figure out why she had that dream. "I guess it came up with that, my mind sorting through what happened and what could have happened."

He nodded. "Seems like that could be it." He admitted. He looked to the clock in the room, which was on the floor probably from when the train had stopped, and saw it was about ten. "Damn." He whistled. "We've been out for two hours."

"Woooow, we got two hours of sleep. Go us!" Kit cheered, and Billy laughed. She then turned a bit curious, and twiddled with her fingers. "Erm… what was I mumbling about, you know, when I was asleep…?" She glanced to his brown eyes, but her eyes quickly went back to the floor, her legs now crossed.

He leaned on his heels. "You called my name a couple of times… and uttered little shrieks, grunted, and mumbled a bunch, but that's it." He shrugged, and she gave a sigh.

"Well, then that's normal. Oh well." She had fully shaken off the dark shadow the nightmare had left in its wake, and smiled as she bent down and began to slip her shoes on. At his look she explained, "I'm not tired anymore."

She retrieved her book bag from where it had been shoved against the wall, and rooted around inside for something. "Aha!" She found the half bag of dried fruit and the pack of crackers! "Want some?" She asked, offering the bag after she had noticed him staring at it.

"Sure. What else do you have in that bag?" He asked with a smile, taking a handful of fruit and taking about five crackers as she munched on a cracker, three more in her hand. He moved to sit beside her on the bunk.

"Go ahead and look in there, I don't care." She shrugged. _'Just don't look in the back pocket—I have a feeling that you'd tease me about having an extra pair of underwear in my book bag, and I could guess the reaction to the tampons…'_

He looked through the contents and gave a quirked eyebrow and grin at the bottles. "What are you, some type of druggie?"

She rolled her eyes. "Look at the labels, genius; they're pain killers, migraine medicine and some chewable tablets to settle stomachs." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"And you have a hoodie? Well it is a bit warm out, that's why you aren't wearing it… Oh!" He clapped, an idea forming in his head.

"What is it?" She shook her head slightly, chewing on the dried fruit. _'Ooh I love this stuff, if only I had a full bag.'_

"Maybe you're one of those drifter-types!" Her eyebrow twitched and she whacked him gently on the arm.

"Idiot, do I look like a drifter?" She asked, and he rubbed the back of his head and chuckled.

"Well… now that you mention it… no." She got one look at his sheepish face and she couldn't help but to crack up and laugh.

"Ah, sorry about the idiot comment Billy, it slipped." She chuckled.

"Its fine, I know you meant it in a nice way." He chuckled. "So… what do we do now?" He asked after a few minutes of silence, the two eating. They'd divided up the crackers and the remaining dried fruit as best they could.

"I don't know." She shrugged.

They finished off the food that had somehow escaped being crushed in her backpack, and they'd drunk some water from the tap in the room. She just tapped her fingers on her leg, and without really noticing it as she read the half-completed report that had been in the typewriter over again for any useful information she started to hum a tune she knew well.

"What song's that?" He asked softly, making her start halfway.

Her eyes softened a bit and she smiled. "It's called _The Lass from the Low Countree_. I… I remember the lyrics and the pitches…"

"You sing?" He asked in surprise. She nodded.

"Yeah. That's the weird thing… I remember training that I got for singing, for performing onstage… I remember the fact that I don't get stage fright. When I was younger, I used to dance. That's all I can get without my head aching." She shrugged. "I can play the piano, too… Not very well, but I can pluck out a simple tune. I used to play flute, but… I guess I fell out of practice."

He looked at her hands and chuckled. They had long fingers that looked nimble, but it matched her somehow. "I should have guessed. You have piano player hands." He pointed out, and she chuckled as she stretched them out—they could easily span an octave on a piano.

"Yeah, I guess so. I'm an artsy person…" She looked at her hands, and then sighed wistfully. "I can see beauty in a bunch of things. I have an artistic view. I see the art in the rain pounding on the window," She'd removed the blind when they'd gotten some water, "And I even see the clashing, chaotic beauty of this wrecked train. I don't know. I guess I can see art in just about everything when I glance around…I can enjoy simple things just by that. Other people just have to look harder to see what I mean. But then again, I also think too much." She started to clam up, but looked to him when he chuckled.

"That's fine. You know… I know how to play piano, too." He smiled at her interested look. "I learned when I was in my teens, but after that… there just wasn't a use for it. I can play pretty well, actually, but… things change, right?"

She nodded. Out of nowhere she laughed. "We're an odd pair. A wrongfully accused, piano-playing ex-soldier and a fifteen year old artsy girl who has a slight case of amnesia and who happened to wake up toting a handgun and a knife in the middle of a forest." As he thought about it, they were an odd pair of friends.

He knew that the girl was starting to think of him as a friend—she was too unique and had gotten through to him, under his hardened exterior, and he couldn't help but acknowledge the friendship. You tend to make friends pretty quickly when they're the only person around to talk to and if you meet under strange occurrences. "Hah, I guess so." He chuckled.

"Anyway…" Her eyes widened and she tilted her head to the side, she lifted a finger to her lips to make the sign for 'Shh', and he quickly tuned in to what sounds were going on around them other then the rain pounding on the window and sides of the train—which, he had to admit was soothing but was pretty dang loud when you were trying to focus in on a sound elsewhere.

_Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump…Thump…Thump…_

The careful footsteps sounded light, she mused. Well, lighter than Billy's footsteps anyway. It was obviously someone who was trained to walk the correct way with a gun, because if they didn't have a gun out on this train, out here in the forest with those cerberi running around, she was going to get concerned. _Maybe it's a cop?_ The little voice asked in the back of her mind, slyly whispering.

'_Maybe. But… A cop out here? Maybe it's a special attack forces team member. A regular run-of-the-mill city cop wouldn't be clear out here in the middle of nowhere. Oh no… Billy! You don't think they found the van, right?'_

_What do I know? I'm the little voice in the back of your fucking mind!_ It retaliated, and she had to give it some credit because it made its point pretty darn well. And then smacked herself on the forehead internally. She was freaking fighting with _herself._ And losing too, she added sourly.

'_Bah, forget you. Right! I gotta. Pay. Attention!'_ She turned her attention back to the footsteps, but they… _'Holy shit!'_ They were in the room next to them! She exchanged worried glances with Billy, and they didn't even dare shift on the bunk, holding their breath almost when the footsteps came closer to the wall the two rooms shared.

They then exited the room next to their temporary lodgings and Kit breathed a sigh of slight relief, as did Billy. And then they nearly had a fit when the doorknob on their room's door rattled.

"_Crap!_" A feminine voice hissed softly; they could barely hear it. The person then sighed, and a lock pick—a professional one it sounded like, not like her wimpy little bent-up hairpin Kit thought with a slight pout—was inserted into the keyhole.

'_Please hold, please hold, please hold!'_ They both pleaded inside their minds at the wooden chair. As if someone had cut them a little slack after the crap was scared out of them, the chair held and the person gave up on opening that particular door.

The footsteps—which Kit and Billy now knew belonged to a female—rounded a corner and stopped where they were. Far enough away that they wouldn't be heard if they were quiet.

"What the hell is someone doing here?" He whispered frantically.

"I don't know! The footsteps were careful though; they sounded, dare I say, trained." She bit at her lip then continued her whisper. "They might be onto you. But… I doubt there's any more than just her out there. I mean… we just _barely_ got away from the dogs… imagine what a bunch of people that were trained to hold their ground would experience out there."

He opened his mouth to whisper something but swung his mouth shut. She was right.

"Billy… I don't want you to get caught. If I have to… I can distract them. Then I'd want you to run. But I doubt it's gonna be needed."

"What?! You're crazy. I'm not going to let you get tied up in the likes of me." He whispered with widened eyes, waving his hands around as if to prove the point.

At her eyebrow quirk he sighed, getting her point without her even having to say anything.

She had a point… She kind of was already tied up in this mess too much to be detangled from him just like that. How would they explain why or even how they were stuck together on this train? If he got caught, not only would he be executed probably immediately, her life would be ruined too. She didn't deserve it, especially when she already had no one and nowhere to go to. _'Oh man, what a mess we have here huh?' _He stated in his mind, wiping his face with his hand.

"Could I finish? Most likely that woman out there is in the same shitty boat as we are—we're up crap creek without a paddle, you know it—and the more guns we have, the more training we have on our side, the more people to watch each other's backs, the better our chances are of us living to see next week. Or hell, even two days from now." She spoke lowly.

When she cursed when she was serious, he had to guess she was either pissed or so deadly serious she would kick him in the crotch for taking it as a joke—which thankfully enough for his balls, he didn't—so he had to guess it was the latter.

"We need to approach the person out there, alright? We'll see how it goes. And Billy… If it turns deadly…" She smiled. "Be careful you big lug." She whispered, and he nodded.

"You too. Don't take a bullet for me okay? I don't need you dying on me."

She rolled her eyes. "If it hits me in the correct spots it wouldn't kill me, you know." She mumbled stubbornly, but her eyes twinkled as he gave her a 'seriously?' look.

As she moved to stuff her hoodie back into her bag, he caught a faint whiff of cigarette smoke. "Kit, do you smoke?" he whispered, then nearly smacked himself—of course she wouldn't, she wasn't stupid. That and she wasn't toting around a lighter and a pack of smokes. She was too young to even purchase the things, anyway.

"Hell no. I'm not an idiot. Besides, I hate the smell… maybe I was around it a lot." She mumbled back. "I… It makes my head hurt to try to remember who the smell's from. Maybe it was a relative or something. Whatever's blocked is pretty much gone." She whispered, and he nodded.

"Right. Sorry."

"It's fine, it doesn't hurt that bad anymore…it hurt a lot when I first woke up." She smiled assuringly to him, and then stood carefully, slinging her backpack onto her back. She wasn't going to leave it somewhere—she didn't exactly have deep pockets and putting a gun in her belt and pants like Billy just wouldn't work. She felt kind of bad, considering she had a holster and he didn't, but she shook that from her mind.

"You didn't sing," He reminded, remembering right then himself, and she gave a smirk to him.

"Maybe later okay?" She snorted, and she slowly removed the chair from underneath the doorknob, and opened it. Whoever had picked the simple lock had actually done it right, which wasn't surprising. It wasn't like all they had was a little hairpin. _'Okay, okay I get it; my hairpin is wimpy compared to professional tools! Damn! I'm sore about that huh? Oh well. I can do pretty well with just a hairpin.' _She could remember picking open a lock on a door, but didn't try to remember where that door was or the reason she was picking the lock. All it would do would make her head ache a little.

They quietly exited the room after Billy had grabbed the small red box that had handgun ammo in it and had slid it into Kit's backpack, along with a small white spray can that had a dark green-lettered label on it.

She could easily tread without being too loud—she didn't know how she knew how to walk so quietly, just chalking it up to having been learned in her youth—and he had to really, really try to not clomp around in his dark brown boots.

When they rounded a corner Kit blinked, as did Billy. A woman's form was squatting in front of a corpse that was slightly rotting and in the uniform of a train employee, looking it over, and a key dangling from her right hand.

There was a red plus-sign that had a red circle ringing it on the white vest that she knew meant that this person must be the medical expert on whatever team she was on. She was obviously on a team, the patch on her left tee-shirt's sleeve constituted to that. It had three yellow stars in the center of the dark blue patch and in a ring around that on the circular patch had 'Raccoon Police Department'—the Department bit was shortened to Dep.—in white blockish letters. It had a curved rectangular patch connected to the circular patch, and said 'S.T.A.R.S'.

She could easily remember what that meant. It meant 'Special Tactics and Rescue Squad'. So she _was_ right… It was a cop, of sorts, a special force team member. She glanced to Billy, and saw he was pointing the gun at the back of the woman—who had short red hair and was pale, but she herself was a few shades paler—and winced when his left arm moved a little, the cuffs making a noise against the leather of his belt.

The person began to get up and turn around. Kit didn't draw her gun, after a quick look from Billy. He still wanted to keep her from being counted as an accessory, should he be caught, huh? She mused that, and then got a good look at the woman's face.

She had blue eyes and the red hair was cut short, somehow fitting her. Billy absently noted that Kit was curvier than this cop was, but the woman was also a tad taller. He was only five-foot nine and he towered over Kit by at least six inches. She wasn't that much taller than the brown-eyed redhead though. Kit was observing the girl though instead of comparing—the woman had a pack clipped on the back of the hip gear she had on, and her undershirt and pants were a shade of foresty-almost-green. The white vest had two slanted triangles on the woman's hips that were the same shade as her shirt.

The pants ended at her mid shin and the cuffs were paler than the slightly-darker-than-her-shirt combat trousers, matching the shirt, the boots she had on were mostly green as well with the rubber coloured white, and she had a light red choker on. It shouldn't have matched but somehow it did.

'_Man she loves green huh?'_ Was the thought that popped into Kit's head, her inner anime character sweatdropping at how much green the uniform had.

She also had a strip of fabric hanging out of her pocket slightly that looked like a headband to keep her hair out of her eyes. But she sure wasn't using it. Maybe she was keeping it for an emergency bandage? She also had white studs in her ears, and had on standard black fingerless gloves with a silver watch on her left wrist, over the glove.

"Billy… Lieutenant Coen." She spoke carefully, her gun holstered and with her not really showing any fear at the gun pointed at her.

"So, you seem to know me. Been fantasizing about me, have you?" He asked, and Kit's lips twitched and she was somehow able to hide it without the other redhead noticing. He _had_ seemed to be the sarcastic type that had to poke a little fun. His face and voice were not-so-shockingly forcefully relaxed and bored as his guard was bound to up around the stranger.

"You're the prisoner that was being transferred for execution. You were with those soldiers outside." She stated.

'_Outside? She says it as if it's not that far away… we must have gone in circles a few times before finding the train.'_ Kit murmured inwardly, the unlikely pair quickly trading glances. The cop didn't catch it, observing Billy.

"Oh, I see. You're with S.T.A.R.S. Well, no offence honey, but your kind doesn't seem to want me around, so… I'm afraid our little chat-time is over." He made to start walking away, tucking his gun into his belt, but she took a step forward, staring at Kit.

"Hey, why are you with him?" She demanded.

Kit sighed, her eyes lazily tracing the woman's features. She wasn't too bad a looker; in fact if she hadn't slipped the gun out of her holster she would have been cute. "Lady, I don't talk to strangers." She spoke coldly, and then went to follow Billy, who was waiting for her. The woman had a slightly shocked face which turned into concern.

"You do know he killed two soldiers, right? He even shot one of them." The woman spoke lowly.

'_Trying to get me to stay with you, eh? Back off lady.'_ "Listen lady, I don't know who you are but the badge and gun isn't going to make me immediately collapse on the floor and beg for protection." She pointed to the gun in the holster on her hips and the pouches, and the knife's sheath. "I think I can manage on my own." She knew Billy hadn't killed those two soldiers. The dogs had. And she'd shot the one soldier by accident, but he'd been a goner anyway. But the cop didn't know that.

"But…" They started to walk away, Billy tense at the presence of the cop. He obviously hated being around them, and had a right to be. She could only guess the crap he'd had to endure. She chased after them a little. "Wait! You're under arrest! And little girl, I'm taking you into custody."

That made them pause and look back at her.

"No thanks doll-face." He seemed to answer for the both of them with that statement. "I've already worn handcuffs." As if she couldn't see them, be brought them up to eye level and shook them a bit.

"And I'm not a little girl, lady." The redhead added with a slight eye twitch. They walked further down the hallway, the cop staying where she was.

She suddenly blurted "I could shoot you know!"

'_We could have shot you.'_ Kit and Billy thought, unknowingly in sync, and continued to leave, back into the main part of the train that the seats were in. They heard a crash behind them but hey; the woman had a gun and was trained. If she got hurt, she had supplies. They weren't going to help someone that didn't need help. They could survive well enough by their own, and she didn't like seeing Billy like that. He had a tinge of sadness in his eyes, and she wanted him to be happy and back to himself.

"Billy…" She said, and he shook his head.

"It's fine. It's just……" He trailed off, and she nodded. She knew it was uncomfortable for him to talk about it.

"Its okay, Billy." She spoke quietly, looking around. Something was… off. With a hint of alarm, they noticed the corpses had either moved or were gone.

"The hell…?" She murmured, hand itching to have her gun in it—so she pacified it by taking out her gun. "B…Billy…" She whispered, the hair standing up on the back of her neck.

"I know." He answered, pulling out his gun.

"_Ungh." _A human-shaped thing stood and it made them jump.

"Sh-_iiiit_." Kit drawled with a sarcastic tone that conveyed 'Well-we're-fucked' when she noticed the person looked rather… deceased. The person's flesh was grey and rotted, the eyes filmed over with white and a putrid smell of rotted meat permeating the room as it stumbled closer.

She fired a shot into its knee; it stumbled but otherwise didn't stop. "Fine, you could've just gone down!" She spoke, and then aimed and fired a shot quickly—it going into the center of the zombie's head. There was blood all over the mouth of it, she noticed with disgust, and it looked like it had some type of dried slime on its chest, the ruined white button up shirt sticking to the flesh.

"What. The hell. Is that." Her companion asked, pointing at the thing with a wide eyed look.

"…It used to be a person." She said after a moment. "But… It's undead. Just like those dogs." While they were talking they went up the narrow, small staircase, only to be met with the sight of hundreds of round eggs—bigger than a ping-pong ball—covered in slime piled up on corners, only a small bit of the hallway uncovered.

A green plant was growing in a pot, and Billy brightened. "Hey, do you know what this is?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It's a green herb, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah… This'll help us out if we get hurt." He pulled it out of the pot and stuffed it into a pocket. "You eat it and it heals you a little bit, we're just lucky they seem to be in supply on this train."

"That does sound useful," Kit nodded, and then took a leaf from a potted plant by the old-styled telephone that was on a decorative chest of drawers, and poked an egg as she squatted to get a better look.

Billy pulled a face, which she glanced back to see, and rolled her eyes at. "I don't get nauseous easily." She told him with a smirk, and then looked even more closely at the eggs.

Her eyebrow raised, her eyes alit with curiosity fueled questions. "…Leeches?"

"What?" He asked her, having been fiddling with the phone. Of course it was dead. The emergency power was on, the main power out. That and the line was cut. Who would he call, anyway? "Why'd you say—?"

She twisted to look back at him. "They're leech eggs. I studied them a few years ago because I was intrigued, they're quite the interesting little things—they're annelids, just like worms—but these are _definitely_ leech eggs. They're just unusually large…" She took her knife and poked an egg that seemed to have fallen off the pile in the corner, and her face turned bewildered. "The hell?" The dead leech—it had been cut from its egg soon enough to kill it—was still not formed all the way, but she could see several things that weren't typical of a leech. Namely the size.

"We're in deep shit." She looked around at all the eggs. "I… I don't think we should come back up here…"

He nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly as he got a glance of the unborn leech's little corpse, his stomach turning. _'How can she not be grossed out? Seriously.'_

She wiped her knife off vigorously on the carpet. They sat halfway down the steps—it was hard because it was a narrow staircase, but they managed to keep hidden from the floor below.

Footsteps came in, and a radio beeped three times to obviously signal that someone was trying to contact you through it.

"This is Rebecca, over." The voice came, and Billy stiffened, but a soft look from Kit made him ease up a little.

'_So her name's Rebecca, eh?' _Kit commented absently in her mind.

There was a bunch of gargled transmission—the rain's fault by no doubt coupled with the fact that the other person may be far away. All they could understand was the name Enrico.

'A higher up team member?' Kit mouthed to him, and he gave a careful shrug. He didn't want to be found by the cop because his handcuffs had made an itty-bitty little noise.

"Enrico? Hello! Can you read me? _Please_ respond!" She spoke into the radio, almost frantically. Had she seen the walking corpse too? There _was_ a good chance there were more of them… With that rooted into her mind Kit began to have worry gnaw at her stomach. She couldn't leave that woman to face the gruesome horrors like that alone… She wasn't desensitized to blood and gore and seemingly the creatures as she was… She might freeze up and get killed.

They had to strain to hear what the other person—a male—was saying. _"Rebecca I can hear you. Now listen up; we've found some detailed information involving the fugitive from a document found in the wrecked wagon. Billy Coen killed as many as twenty three people. Over."_

"_Twenty three_ people…" Rebecca sounded like she was speaking to herself, and sounded more than a little shocked.

"_We've also confirmed that he was institutionalized. Keep your guard up. Can you hear me Rebecca? Over."_

Silence. She didn't say anything.

"_Stay alert Rebecca. He wouldn't think twice before killing you."_

"Enrico! Captain! Hello? Hello!" Some tapping noises, she was probably trying to get the radio to work, but the connection was lost.

Kit was shocked at how many deaths Billy had been blamed for. That and that nobody had caught anything amiss about the case… and he had been institutionalized.

She shook her head. He was still the same Billy that had woken her from her nightmares and that she'd saved. She didn't feel or think any differently towards him. She knew he was innocent, that he was framed for those murders. She didn't even have to know the full details of his case; she just knew her friend was innocent. _'And I'm calling him my friend? Meh… oh well.'_

"Great… I'm a rookie stuck on a train with no backup." Rebecca spoke aloud, and another moan erupted from a zombie, which started to walk, judging by the heavy and clumsy footsteps. "Ahh!" She screeched and then shot it a few times until it fell down and she ran to the door closest to the stairs, opening the door quickly with the key that had been dangling from her hand earlier and threw the metallic object at the walking corpse and then got the hell out of there.

Billy and Kit looked at each other. "…We _have_ to help her." Kit spoke seriously, and he gave her a look that said 'umm WHY?' she replied to that with her own 'think about it' look. "We have to because she's scared and she's a rookie." She hissed.

"Aren't you scared?" He asked almost out of the blue. "She probably has more training than you."

'_He brings up a point but I don't feel all that scared._' She gave a dry laugh. "Billy, I'm not scared, not like she is. I don't know why, but I'm not… come on." He nodded, and she saw in his eyes that he did want to help the S.T.A.R.S rookie… _'He really isn't that bad of a guy. Can't Rebecca see that? Hell, I'm hanging around him and he hasn't killed me, she should get a freaking clue.'_

They headed into the door that Rebecca had gone into, sneaking past the stupid zombie that had gotten clocked in the head by the key. As the door slid shut behind them Rebecca turned around abruptly, startled.

"It's gonna be dangerous from here on in. Why don't we cooperate?" He said when he got in there, and Kit stood at his side, their guns put away to try and show they weren't going to shoot her.

"Cooperate with _you_?" She asked, boldly stepping forward, her arms going out from her sides in a gesture that clearly said 'Why would I?'

"Listen little girl, if you haven't noticed there's some pretty freaked out things on this train." He started to go up the stairs, stopping when he was near Rebecca and he leaned on the railing. "And I for one want to get outta here. I don't think we stand a chance doing it alone."

"You expect me to trust _you_, a wanted felon? I don't need your help. I can handle this on my own." She spoke stubbornly, hands on her hips. Kit came to be at the stair's railing. "And don't call me little girl!" She stood defiantly.

The long-haired redhead mumbled something like 'hypocrite' under her breath, causing Rebecca to glare at her and Billy to laugh.

"Alright Miss Do-it-Yourself," He make a joking gesture, which Rebecca backed away from, making Kit call her a spoilsport in her mind. "What _should_ I call you?"

"The _name_ is Rebecca Chambers, but that's Officer Chambers to _you_."

'_Get off your high pedestal lady; we're trying to help you.'_ "Stop it, Rebecca." She spoke with a tired voice. It was obvious that Billy just _loved_ to push the woman's buttons and she was growing tired of Rebecca's somewhat childish behavior. She should see that Billy was just trying to cheer himself and his companion up a little, and get the rookie to loosen up a bit.

"Hey, that's Officer Chambers to you too little girl." The woman spoke commandingly, with a hint of something that told Kit that she didn't like the other redhead that much.

"Listen up, _Rebecca,_" She spoke with a hint of faint amusement. "My name is _not_ 'little girl'. Really, how old do you think I am?"

"You look… seventeen or eighteen." She mumbled.

Kit made a buzzer sound that made it clear the other redhead was wrong. "I'm fifteen years old. I'm a woman, the same as you, so get over yourself." She told her sternly, and Billy got a strong image of a mother scolding her child for doing something that hurt someone's feelings. He had to hold in the laughter… "My name's Kit Masagobi. Learn it, love it, and get the fuck used to it." She was trying to ignore Billy's shoulders shaking in silent laughter that she could see in the corner of her eye.

Rebecca blinked and then sighed, giving in. "Alright… fine, Miss Masagobi."

Billy made a noise that sounded like laughter in the back of his throat. Kit rolled her eyes. "Hey Miss goody-two shoes, I'm not 'Miss' anything. Call me Kit, because I'm calling you Rebecca."

Rebecca went to say something against it but stopped with a look from Kit. It pleaded, and she gave in. "Okay… Kit."

"Anyway," He interjected, "Well then, if you can handle this _yourself_, Rebecca, why don't you go and try while I wait here?" He nodded with a smirk towards the staircase in the room, and Kit snickered at Rebecca's facial expression. It was hard not to, because it was a mix of surprise, relief, and even a little bit of fright, and her eyes were widened. Rebecca got out of the defensive stance she had, at least.

"Okay…" She spoke resigned to doing this, and got her gun out and started to reload the clip.

Kit had a sinking feeling in her gut. She poked Billy in the side as the rookie checked her gun. "Billy… can I go with her? I don't want to just sit around and wait for her to come back, plus she's going to freeze up if something attacks her." She spoke lowly, in a hushed tone. His eyes softened at the concern he could hear. She cared about people she shouldn't—the cop, and him especially. But he couldn't begrudge her for it; she was kind to the person who had unwittingly pissed her off. It impressed him, to tell the truth.

He thought for a moment. "I don't want you going off without me… but…"

'_Aww, Billy's protective of me. Who would've thought?' _She internally cooed then smirked. Of course he'd care about her a little. He obviously thought more of her than just being a stranger.

"Okay. Be careful though, and don't get killed."

"Got it! Thank you!" She smiled after hugging him quickly. Then her face turned serious. "Don't get too used to the hugs, dude. I'm not the touchy feely huggy type of girl." And with that she poked him in the chest, right above where he had re-crossed his arms. He laughed and shook his head.

"'Course not. Alright, be careful." He eyed Rebecca, clearly saying with his eyes to be careful too.

Kit spotted the paper on the table at the bottom of the stairs but shrugged and promised herself she'd come back for it later, and she got out her gun, her fingers tapping the handle in an almost anxious way. She watched Rebecca start on the stairs, and followed her without hesitation, wishing she could go first but the older woman wouldn't have let her.

She had a feeling something bad was going to happen.

* * *

**K.L.K- And so ends the seventh chapter.**

**Wesker-… I thought you had school…**

**K.L.K- (shakes head) We got more snow. Everything's back to level two snow emergencies here in Ohio. Well, nearly every county's on level two.**

**Wesker- Weren't almost all the snow emergencies cleared?**

**K.L.K- Yeah… But I live in Ohio, remember? It has a lot of rural places, and a lot of rough back roads that kids live on. Take for example my road. It's not that bad except we never get salt—just ash—and it's a dead-ended road. That and the person who takes care of it doesn't give a crap, it branches off a highway and only has five houses. **

**Wesker-… That sounds isolated…**

**K.L.K- (snorts) No **_**shit**_**. I haven't seen my friends in more than a week… I'm sort of sad. But I talk to them online, and I'm used to being alone in my room. Its okay, I guess.**

**Wesker-… (Goes to say something but doesn't, and sits beside her on the couch) Well… What time is it?**

**K.L.K- Hmm… (Checks clock) Four-forty four in the morning… I haven't been to sleep yet. I can't sleep at night, I automatically—during periods of having no school—go to sleeping most the day away and staying up at night. I dunno why. Anyway, who's going to say it this time?**

**Sherry- (jumps up and down) Ooh! Ooh! Me!**

**K.L.K- (chuckles) Okay, go on kiddo.**

**Sherry- Please review!**


	8. Leech Man and Zombie Rushing

**Her New Beginning **

_The door to safety is shut._

_There is no turning back…_

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE: **Okay! Eighth chapter HO! (Laughs) Okay, I know. Stop being goofy. Well, it seems Kit's nature is coming out now that there's someone who's truly scared about some of the stuff, and she'll try to be there for Rebecca, believe me… How is it so far? Does anyone read this before they go to the chapter, anyway? And I'm going to do this in the order that I did when I first played the game… Except for one part that I screwed up and made it much harder… (Sweatdrops) I sent Billy up to a place where Rebecca should've gone… Hehe? Anyway, I hope you like this, and I hope the characters are still recognizable… oh and there will be stuff in the places that it is in on the Easy difficulty, as that is the only one I've played due to the fact I love to doink around and lazily play. Hi ho silver awaayyyyy! (Points heroically towards the chapter)

**CHAPTER TITLE:** Leech Man and Zombie Rushing

* * *

"What are you doing with Billy Coen anyway?" Rebecca asked as they got up there, and they pawed through the contents strewn all over the small desk that the person who would have taken orders and such for food would have been. The dining car was a mess…

"Well…" She sighed, quickly scanning over a paper. Useless information pertaining to what could be served when and what to not serve at times, the limit of drinks they could serve here before they had to send them to the bar in another car and other stuff they didn't need to know. She clicked her tongue. It wouldn't hurt to tell Rebecca the truth, would it? She had no real reason to lie, anyway.

"…Kit?" The woman asked softly. "If it's a painful story, you don't have to." At Kit's laugh she was slightly startled.

"No, no, it's not anything like that. It's just… weird. Just for a starter, I have a slight case of amnesia. I can't remember some stuff but important stuff's still in there. All that got wiped was whoever I knew, where I lived, and the school I went to… that kind of stuff. It's permanently gone, too… No triggers."

"Oh… I'm sorry." She spoke, truly sorry.

"Don't be. It's not so bad. I still have all the knowledge from schooling, I still know myself, and I know everything I really need to that's important. Besides……I have a feeling in my gut that I wouldn't have anyone or a home to go back to if I do remember. I'd gain nothing by it. Some things… are better off being forgotten." She spoke morosely. She was acutely aware of the everyday horrors of the world that seemed so distant usually but to some people struck home. She had a feeling she'd always been aware of it, too.

Rebecca nodded silently. "But… how did you get here?"

"I don't know that either. I woke up lying on the forest floor, with my backpack. I started walking towards the road, when some dogs attacked a van that was driving across the road. It was almost fully dark out by then. I heard a shout from inside the van, I knew it was a security van so don't give me that look, and I weighed the soldier's survival rates, as they were being attacked by the dogs. It wasn't too good, and whoever was in the back of the van was still alive, trying to kick the doors open."

"You just let the two die?" She asked with her eyes wide, obviously thinking her cruel.

"…It was too late. And Billy wasn't the one who shot the soldier… I tried to shoot a dog off of the one that was still screaming, and it went through the dog's neck and got him in the chest. It was his own fault; he wasn't wearing a bullet-proofed vest, the idiot." She seemed unaffected by it, to Rebecca's shock.

"Doesn't it bother you? To see someone dead?" She asked in a whisper, unearthing some bullets, which she offered some to Kit but the other redhead refused them, opening her pouches and showing she had enough bullets and that Rebecca would have more use for them.

"Not that much, to be honest. A death is just a death. A corpse is just a body. Dying and death are two unavoidable aspects of life, and I've already accepted that. Besides… Its better that they died. The one that was screaming had an eye taken out by a Cerberus."

"A what? And that's… kind of cold." She spoke, a bit taken aback by the analytical thoughts of the teen.

"The feral dogs. I call them 'Cerberi' as a plural and 'Cerberus' as a singular term. They are hellhounds, are they not? The Mythological name for the three-headed dog that guards Hades fit them nicely. And anyway, it wouldn't pay to cry over everyone's grave. Besides… I did that guy a favor by accidentally shooting him, I suppose. He went into shock, and it wouldn't hurt as badly to be killed by those things." She shuddered slightly; the nightmare ghosting over her mind. _'Oh no you don't!'_ She shoved it from her mind ruthlessly. She hated when nightmares would try to establish themselves as fear in the waking world.

Rebecca slowly nodded. It made a twisted kind of sense now that she thought about it. "Oh…"

"Anyway, back to what I was talking about originally… I helped Billy bust the already battered handcuffs and got him the hell outta there. I didn't even know who he was, I just felt like I needed to save him. We ran around for awhile in the darkness, from those damned mutts, until we found the train. We holed up in that room that you couldn't get into in that one hallway, planning to leave the place in the morning when we could see where we were going. We'd slept for a few hours. Then you came along."

The short-haired redhead took that all in, browsing over each and every detail as she scoured a few more pieces of paper. Useless, all of them. "Weren't you afraid of him when you saw the cuffs?" She asked quietly.

"No, I wasn't. Think about it Rebecca, sure, he could have killed me… but he didn't."

"That's because you saved him. He's liable to shoot _me_, then…" She spoke quietly.

"Rebecca, earlier when you said you could shoot him… He could have shot you, but _did_ he?" Her brown eyes pierced into the blue, burning into Rebecca's mind. They conveyed that she was trying to get the rookie to _understand_ something.

Some uncomfortable shuffling of debris was heard after the cop looked away.

"I guess not…" She spoke uncertainly. "That still doesn't explain why a civilian like you is out here in the middle of the Raccoon Forest."

"I don't know the answer, Rebecca, but I guess it's one of those things that will stay unknown." They both shrugged a little.

"Besides… where did you get your weapons? And the blood on your shoes and pants…"

'_So, she actually observed me well enough to see that, huh?'_ She asked herself dully in her mind. "I woke up with them, just like I did with my backpack. And I can't remember where I got the blood… I don't feel bad about it being there, though, so it must have been from something that was trying to kill me." At her look, she sighed. "I'm not the average fifteen year old; I think that's been duly established and noted. You don't have to understand why I trust Billy… But he's right."

Rebecca made a noise in the back of her throat, telling her to go on.

"We need to stick together if we want to come out of this alive. It _is_ going to get more dangerous. You saw the Cerberi… The zombies."

She was silent, until she found her voice. "One of my team members came through a window. He was badly wounded from the dogs outside. He said… He said that the forest was full of zombies and monsters. His name was Edward." The mood was a bit blank, not uncomfortable and tense as it had been. Kit easily caught the key term, 'was' and sighed. This Edward guy obviously wasn't among the living anymore.

"…A friend of yours?" She nodded, and the brown eyes flicked from her face to the small box she was rifling through. "Sorry to hear that."

"Kit… are you really sorry or are you just saying that?" The blue-eyed female asked in a tiny voice, as if it was something she couldn't resist to ask even if she wouldn't like the answer the teen gave.

"Don't think I think human life is useless and worthless, Rebecca." Kit spoke harshly, her voice cutting and the tone clipped, knowing what Rebecca was assuming. Her fiery eyes softened, and so did her voice. "I believe it holds worth in different ways. It's like a network. A life might mean nothing to someone, but another person may love that person dearly, so the worth would go up. A never ending network, you see?" She smiled gently.

She mulled over the Masagobi's words, and then nodded. It made sense, after all. If you loved one person dearly, they knew and loved someone, and that person knew and loved someone else. Everyone had cared about someone sometime. "You're extremely mature for a fifteen year old, you know that?" She asked, starting to stand up.

"I know… I have a theory that it's because I think much too freely and too much. I can't help it." She grinned, getting up without the help of Rebecca, who was brushing off the seat of her pants.

Kit couldn't help sweeping her gaze over the woman again. Now that she wasn't going to shoot Billy and try to take her into custody for 'protection', she could allow herself to truly acknowledge any and all thoughts about her. The words 'feminine' and 'lovely' came to mind, as well as 'innocent'.

_She's quite the looker._ The little voice whispered, and she internally rolled her eyes at it.

'_Not you again,'_ She sighed, Rebecca now trying to pick the lock on the door, but something was jammed into the mechanism and couldn't be taken out from this side. With that Rebecca looked at the nearest table for anything of use while Kit fingered her gun's handle and had a conversation with the little voice.

_Well? I'm just voicing what you aren't._ It spoke amusedly.

_Great_. Now it had a sense of humor. _'Still. I think Billy likes her, okay? Sheesh. It wouldn't pay to like her.'_

Kit didn't have a set preference for what gender the people she was attracted to, as she hadn't really liked anyone in the past few years—she felt it in her gut and the voice agreed to cement the truth behind the instinctual knowing—but had entertained the thought of being with both genders.

She _was_ a teenager, after all. Disturbing thoughts were bound to pop into her head that were of _that_ nature sometime. She felt the beginning bonds of friendship with the short-haired S.T.A.R.S rookie, not the thrum that would suggest she was getting attached to her in a more than friendly way.

_Okay, okay. Jeeze… Anyway, do you have a bad feeling?_ It asked, and she forced her attention to be fully on the outside world when she mumbled an affirmative response in her head, as a loud _cling_ pierced the relative silence of the room. A crackle of fire and a burst of light made them look to the far end of the dining car, and Kit jumped slightly and swore as Rebecca gasped.

'_The hell!? There was someone sitting there? Fuck that scared me!'_ She tried to calm the pounding of her heart and succeeded after a second, her heartbeat quickly returning to normal. "F_uuuck_ that scared me…" She whispered to Rebecca, and then with a small hint of alarm noticed Rebecca was approaching the strange person sitting almost as if he was knocked out at the table. The tablecloth was on fire, a candlestick having fallen over. _'What the hell's she doing? That person doesn't look like a zombie, though… argh, the hair on the back of my neck is standing up again…'_

_I don't know. Careful… _The voice whispered, and she outwardly gave a nod without meaning to, drawing her gun.

"Uhm…" It was clear Rebecca was being a little more cautious. "Excuse me, sir?" The person didn't respond. Grabbing his shoulder and shaking him briefly, the rookie asked "Sir?"

His head started to turn towards her, scaring Rebecca a little bit, and it made a sick wet noise as it fell off the pseudo body. Rebecca screamed as Kit gasped—she could see this from where she was—the suit started to slump to the ground, and out of it came _leeches_. But not just any leeches, these things were huge—twice the size of the leech she had cut from its egg earlier—and slime-covered, with a giant white-ish spot on their back. They started to converge together, in a mound, as the woman started backing up fearfully.

'_Oh FUCK those_ really_ aren't regular leeches!'_ Kit thought, eyes widening as she quickly placed her trigger finger where it belonged on the gun, having had it off the trigger for Rebecca's safety.

The leeches kept going over each other, the mound growing to be almost person-sized… and it slumped backwards.

"Rebecca!" Kit ground out, the rookie frozen in fear, trying to fumble her gun from its holster. "Get over here!" Instinctual fear was brewing in her gut but she refused to let it rule her. That could be a deadly mistake, she knew.

It was like through the blood rushing in her ears, the rookie couldn't hear her, and fear zinged through them again as the slumped mound of leeches parted into two bits at the lower part. _'It looks like… legs? Leeches shouldn't be able to do this shit!'_ Kit gulped, and a little shriek of shock erupted in the back of her throat as Rebecca gasped, when the thing flipped up to be its full height, the distorted, white-eyed face of the 'man' that had been sitting at the table acting as its head.

"What are you waiting for?! Shoot it!" Kit barked harshly at her, already pulling the trigger as fast as she could—and she could do so pretty fast. She didn't have to, since the weapon was the same type as Rebecca's and Billy's—semi-automatic—but she couldn't really complain. The thing still got shot either way, after all. The rookie was regaining her senses, and ran back to Kit, firing away at the thing with her pistol.

The thing clumsily walked closer—after all it _was_ made of leeches, Kit ground out in her mind—but it was faster than she would have liked.

_Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Their guns went off like crazy, and Kit absently wondered where the hell Billy was. He must've figured they'd be okay, or he'd gone somewhere for a short time.

After shooting it about eighteen or nineteen times each, leeches exploding like a gross greenish gunk-filled balloon when they were shot, the head burst and the humanoid mound fell to the ground, the leeches now slithering in a really, _really_ fast pace towards Rebecca. A few went for Kit, but the majority went after the older redhead.

They freaking _leapt_ at the rookie, quickly covering her legs and then the rest of her body as she screeched and tried to get them off, and some gunshots came from behind Kit, who was pretty damn busy stomping on the leeches that had decided to try to come after her before they hopped onto her.

Apparently aiming for the bigger ones was a must, because the Leeches fell off almost like a gross snakeskin shell from Rebecca, her landing on her hands and knees as she breathed heavily, scared out of her mind as she breathed heavily.

Billy walked a few steps and Kit made to follow, but some of the leeches gave one last attempt and launched themselves at the ex-soldier, whom reacted quickly and threw himself to the side, shooting the things in mid-air and grunting a little when he landed on his side. Kit herself was a bit busy to help him because some leeches had launched themselves at her when they had done so to Billy, and she'd managed to shoot them even with her untrained aim.

"Are you okay?" Billy asked as he walked over to Rebecca, and the younger redhead walked over too, concerned about Rebecca—she was calming down and was covered in slime.

She didn't say anything, and gave them a thumbs-up as she pushed herself to rest on her butt.

"Heh." Billy found that a little amusing and Kit's lips twitched into a smile. They kneeled down near her to make sure she was okay, when someone's singing was heard from outside the train, and they looked to the direction it seemed to be coming from.

"Hmm?" Billy grunted before they all caught sight of the figure, far away, only illuminated by a flash of lightning.

'_It's a male… beautiful voice.'_ The fifteen-year old absently said in her mind and her head tilted to the side as she listened to the singing. The person had on a white robe that looked like it was torn and tattered, and had mid shoulder-length brown hair. He was pale. She could tell that his face was gaunt as a flash of lightning came, and the figure stopped singing.

During this they had stood up, Kit helping Rebecca absently, and Billy glanced at the other two. "Who is that guy?"

The younger gave a shrug as the older one started to reply—and stumbled a little as the train jerked into motion.

"What's going on?" The rookie asked, looking around a little, a little scared but more curious. "Who's controlling the train?"

"Go and check out the first engine car." The greyish-blue eyed male said, tearing his eyes away from the window and obviously wanting to get to the bottom of it as well. Rebecca started towards the stairs to do just that—when Billy called out, "Listen! We've gotta cooperate with each other from now on. You got that?"

Almost haughtily, as if she was remembering that she was a cop, she took a defensive stance and glared as she spoke. "Well, I don't—…"

"Clue in girl! Or maybe you _like_ being worm-bait." Something flashed in Rebecca's eyes, as if she knew he was being right… But was too stubborn to admit it.

"Alright! But remember, I _will_ shoot you if you try anything funny." She pointed at him, eyes glaring.

The other redhead was growling in her throat, hands clenched into fists and her fingernails digging into her palms. That _really_ pissed her off. _'Rebecca, did you forget the chat we had not too long ago? Did you not just notice that he saved your ungrateful ass from being leech chow?'_ Her eyes watched Rebecca darkly, smoldering.

"Fine! Take these with you," He dug into Kit's backpack after somewhat cautiously approaching her; she looked pretty damn pissed off, after all, and took out the box of ammo out and then tossed it to the rookie.

She looked at it, startled for a second, before her eyes turned a little warmer and she started to head off.

"If you find anything, give me a call, all right?" He asked in a gentler, calmer voice, holding a radio he must've just gotten in the air.

'_Maybe that's where he was… Because he would have come running after he heard the commotion.'_ The teen smiled inwardly.

Rebecca stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to him, taking her radio off where it was clipped to her hip and held it up to look at it, before looking back at him with a slight smile as she nodded. _'Perhaps… he's not such a bad guy, like Kit said…'_

"Hey, lady, I'd better go with you." Kit spoke up decisively, unknowingly breaking Rebecca's train of thought. "I mean, if you couldn't just start shooting that thing without me nagging you then who knows what'll happen to you if you go off by yourself." The barb and sharpness in her voice was there, but it morphed to a joking prod and a grin after she couldn't hold it back any longer.

Rebecca looked like she wanted to yell at the other redhead but then caught what she was really trying to say—that she cared and didn't want the other redhead to die. Rebecca then started using a tablecloth that had been on the floor, folded up for some reason to wipe the remaining slime off, most of it just disappearing for some reason.

"All right…" Billy held up his hands in an 'I surrender' gesture as the teen looked to him, pleading with her eyes. "Go ahead. I'm going to poke around here a little more, okay? You go ahead and come back here when you get access to the engine car."

The older redhead gave him a thumb's up and the younger one gave him a mock salute, which he rolled his eyes at pointedly.

"Right, see you later Billy. I'll be careful." Kit spoke out as she neared the steps, where Rebecca was patiently waiting for her at the bottom, and he chuckled.

"You better be, kid. See ya later." With that he started rooting through the mess of a table that was closest to him, and she took that as her cue to leave and did so, her shoes thudding quietly on the carpeting on the stairs.

"Kit…" The woman spoke quietly. Kit grunted as she picked up the paper on the table at the bottom of the stairs, remembering about having promised herself to take a look at it. She took that as a sign that the redhead was listening to her. "…I know what you meant. Thanks."

"Hmm." That uncaring answer came, as Kit's eyes were racing across the document she'd picked up, obviously more interested in reading than to listen to the person who'd pissed her off so unknowingly.

_Notice to Supervisors_

_When closing the dining car, supervisors are asked to switch off the automatic doors after ensuring all staff have vacated the car._

_The main automatic door power switch is located on the roof of the fifth car. The main power is also supplied through here. The emergency power will come on if you accidentally turn off the main power._

_Inspections will take place when the train is garaged._

_After inspections are complete, use the ladder at the rear of the second floor of the dining car._

_Umbrella Corp.  
Maintenance Department_

"Great." Kit muttered under her breath, and then saw the angry flush spreading across Rebecca's cheeks when she glanced to her companion. She looked at her with a face that showed she truly didn't know why she was angry. "What's gotten into you?"

"_Nothing_." The woman replied through gritted teeth. Her eyes _burned _with hostility and dislike at that moment.

The teen sighed. "Rebecca… look… you're pissing me off." She got straight to the point, making the other redhead drop her stance. "I don't sugarcoat things, and I'm sure as hell not going to start with you or for you. Listen… I want to help you, but I can't if you keep acting like that. The way you were acting to Billy." Her eyes turned soft and sad. "How would you like it if someone acted that way to you?"

Rebecca didn't know what to say, so she stared, more than a little shocked.

"Hey, lady," Kit waved her hand in front of the other redhead's face. "You going to respond or just stare at me?"

"It's just… I wasn't really aiming that attitude at you, but at Billy…" She spoke, a little confused.

Kit sighed. "Rebecca, I don't like it when my friends are threatened. Billy is my friend. Thus, you—a person that I am feeling the beginning of a friendship with—fighting with him is just pissing me right the fuck off. I hate it when friends fight. Please… don't. For me?" She pleaded with her eyes, and at the end there was a sorrowed tone that dug into Rebecca's heart.

"…I'll try, okay?" She smiled a bit. "And… Call me Becca or Becky if you want."

"Alright…" A smile touched the younger redhead's lips. "Becca."

A crinkle of paper caught the rookie's attention. "Hey, what's that?" she pointed to the paper in Kit's hand.

Brown eyes looked down at it. "Oh! It's a notice to the supervisors on this train. They said something about the automatic door power switch being up on the roof, and that they had to make sure all staff had vacated the dining room upstairs before they flipped the switch." She passed the paper to the woman, tapping her foot in contemplation.

"Oh, I see… So to get that," She pointed to the automatic door that they could only assume led into a kitchen, "open, we'll have to go up _there_?"

"Essentially so, yes. And the train only has emergency power right now… The main power is connected through the same place where the switch is."

"So we get up there…" She started with her blue eyes agleam as were the brown ones of the other female.

"And we get the main power back on." They said at the same time, and then grinned.

'_Yup… Miss Chambers is _definitely_ a friend.'_ She spoke warmly in her mind, and felt the anger she'd felt at Rebecca's attitude towards Billy start to slowly dissolve into being just a memory.

"Anyway, you're a little blunt at times, you know that?" The eighteen-year old chatted absently as they moved into the car that Rebecca had thrown the key at the zombie in. They had to check around, right? And they had to see if they had access to the first engine car or not. This was the only way they had to go through, unfortunately.

Without Rebecca even mentioning the zombies apparently chewing on each other on the floor area in-between some seats, Kit took her hand that wasn't used to fire a gun and pulled her quickly and quietly past the undead menaces. It was no use wasting ammo on killing these things—there were dead bodies everywhere, and even outside the train… It wasn't worth it. They would keep on coming, a never-ending flow of the undead. That was something they didn't need.

After they got into the next car Kit jumped slightly, and the woman whose wrist she was holding stiffened up. A zombie in the blue outfit of a conductor, hat and all, was stiffly and slowly limping towards them, face disfigured and rotted by the mouth, eyes filmed over as all the other walking corpses seemed to be.

Three other zombies in regular ruined civilian clothes were behind him, and had caught sight of what their blue-wearing brethren was stumbling towards. Fresh meat was _so_ much better in their minds than settling for chewing on themselves, Kit thought darkly, before she released Rebecca's wrist. "Well? Blow them away, lady! I can't do all the shooting." She exclaimed slightly after she'd fired a few shots, hitting them in the face or missing and hitting one that she didn't mean to that was behind her actual target.

'_Seriously. My aim's better than some people's but I'm not trained. A little help?'_ She smiled when Rebecca finally fired.

Soon all but the conductor zombie was killed.

"Alright… on three we rush at him and knock him over, then run to the door at the end." Kit spoke decisively. They'd already wasted about fifteen bullets killing those three zombies. They couldn't afford to lose much more, and she was starting to get a little anxious—the amount of ammunition it took to kill these things when it wasn't a lucky or well-aimed shot was troubling.

"What?! You're crazy!" The other redhead sputtered back.

"You're out then? Pity… One…" Her eyes flashed.

"Kit…" The blue eyes were cautious, her tone warning the girl not to chance it.

"Two…" The fifteen-year old was obviously set on her plan.

"Billy's gonna kill me if you die." _'Uh-oh I hadn't thought of that.'_ The cop gulped a little.

"And…"

"Kit!" Rebecca made a grab for her backpack, missing just ever so slightly as Kit rushed forward.

"Three!" The zombie wasn't prepared and was so off-balanced that it fell over easily when she rammed her shoulder into its chest. "Come on Becca!" She grabbed the other woman's wrist, pulling her through the aisle and to the next car.

"Kit…" Rebecca started slowly.

"Yeah, Becca?" Kit grinned, happy her plan had worked.

"You're crazy."

'_Err…'_ Kit had known somehow the zombie hadn't had the brain power to actually anticipate the living human prey it was salivating over to actually rush it and push it out of the way, but her companion clearly thought she was a little insane. "Hey now Becca, when did I ever claim to be one-hundred percent sane? Besides… Sanity's no fun." A smirk spread across her lips and it took a minute for Rebecca to get over the slight horror and realize the teen was pulling her leg a little.

"Jeeze… Billy's not going to be happy." She sighed, as they entered the room closest to where they entered this car. Room two-hundred and two.

"I know those things are stupid. They can't open doors; they were even eating their own _kind_ in that one car. Becca, do you really think I'm stupid?" She gave a small chuckle when the woman looked a tiny bit chastised. She seemed to have that affect on some people, especially when she had to set them straight about some things. "Their motor functions are obviously impaired from the rotting and not to mention its oh-so-clear that they're just walking corpses. No real intelligence."

The woman shook off the sheepish feeling and sighed. "Still. I'm not going to be the one to tell him that you rushed a zombie."

Kit gave a laugh. "Okay, it sounds a little bit nutty when you say it like that. Help me look for something useful, would you?" She was already looking over the papers strewn across the desk. "We need information desperately… Especially maybe a clue as to why the dead are up and walking."

Rebecca nodded, and began to rifle through a stack of papers that she grabbed off the desk. All useless, boring and blank forms for an investigation it seems. No details or fields on the forms to suggest whatever they would be investigating, but it was a small clue, the long-haired redhead knew, and had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that this _definitely_ had something to do with that half-finished report that she had folded up and put into her pocket at that moment.

* * *

**K.L.K- And we start to get to the truly troublesome business of writing fanfictions of games—the documents! Oh, the documents. (Shivers) But I do get every document from the game, save for a tiny little tweak with the Notice to Supervisors, but it's not really going to change anything.**

**Rebecca-… Oh. I see.**

**Billy- Kit rushed a **_**zombie**_**?**

**K.L.K- Well, yeah… She didn't want to waste ammo…**

**Leon- That was reckless **_**and**_** stupid!**

**K.L.K- (somehow hops up and grabs the back of his head and yanks him down to her level) Come now, Leon, nobody wants to hear that hilariously funny line you've previously directed at Miss Wong…**

**Ada- (pokes her head in from the Closet of Character's Rooms) Someone call for me? Was it you Wesker? I heard someone say "Miss Wong"…**

**K.L.K- (Twitches as she releases Leon who moves to the other side of Claire carefully)**

**Wesker- It wasn't me, Ada… It was K.L.K… (Warily steps away from the authoress as she's muttering) Is it really so bad to be considered to be similar to me? (Smirks)**

**K.L.K- (thinks) Yeah; actually it is in some ways… I don't want to be thought of a conniving, backstabbing evil jackass of a traitorous monster who enjoys holding people up by their necks against walls or trodding on them.**

**Wesker-… (Smirk slowly disappears as everyone else snicker behind their hands)**

**K.L.K- But other than that you're cool. (Grins at him and he shakes his head and rubs his temples)**

**Wesker- (Mutters) Grah… Forget about my manipulation; just let you take a few cracks at my enemies. They'll fall sooner than they would if I tortured them for certain.**

**K.L.K-……I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult, but that's as good as a compliment from you, Wesker. Thanks. (Shrugs)**

**Sherry- (runs up scared and grossed out) K.L.K! (Runs and hides behind the redhead's legs)**

**K.L.K- Err... What is it, Sherry……? (Trails off as she notices Steve running in, holding Bitorez Mendez's eye like he had been chasing Sherry with it)…...**_**Steve**_**……**

**Steve- (wide-eyed) Meep! (Runs back the way he came and probably locks himself in his room)**

**K.L.K- Alright, before this gets any more hectic, I'm going to have to end it. (Sighs) Sherry, honey, the gross eye's not in here anymore, you can stop hiding behind my legs now…**

**Sherry- O-Okay… Steve didn't mean to scare me, he thought I thought it was funny… (Slowly steps out from behind K.L.K's legs)**

**K.L.K- I know, I know. But some people don't notice between fake scared and real scared nowadays. Who's going to say it this chapter? (Sends Sherry over to Claire)**

**Joseph- I will.**

**K.L.K- Okay, go ahead.**

**Joseph- I, Joseph Frost of Alpha team am asking you to review for this story… so that maybe I will live a little while longer when we get to that game…? (Takes a hopeful glance at the authoress)**

**K.L.K- (snorts and bumps him out of the Reader's views) Tough shit buckaroo, you still die. I'm not messing with the games that much. Okay, seeya! (Waves)**


	9. Edward's Corpse, Dizzy, Bye Conductor!

**Her New Beginning **

_The door to safety is shut._

_There is no turning back…_

* * *

**SUMMARY:**_ When she awoke, she had only foggy memories. She remembered herself clearly and her friends foggily, but she knew she could never see them again. Never. But she also felt a certain sense of belonging, and that is what brought her to be involved with the ex-S.T.A.R.S and other survivors._

**RATING: **T

**AUTHORESS'S NOTE:** Well, on a good note the snow ended, it's almost all, and spring is creeping upon Ohio. Ahh… Spring. I only detest allergies but meh, I have Zyrtec… I also beat REmake. I'm using that version of the game—I like it because of Lisa—and I will be using some of the old dialogue. Hope it works out, but for now we're still going through with Resident Evil 0. This reminds me… I'll have to beat the original on Chris's scenario as well as the new one.

**CHAPTER TITLE:** Edward's Corpse, Dizziness, Bye Conductor!

* * *

As Kit looked to the bunk beds in the room—which one of them had a dead corpse in it, which she stabbed in the eye after seeing Rebecca stiffen up at it—and picked up a diary that he had probably finished writing the last entry in before he'd been killed in his sleep. Poor guy. She wiped her knife on the sheets, reading the handwriting on the cover of the light diary.

"It's a Passenger's Diary…" Kit acknowledged quietly, and Rebecca gave a nod to her.

"Hey, why don't you read it aloud? I'll keep searching. It'll be easier than passing the document back and forth."

It made sense to Kit so she sighed, nodded in agreement, and cleared her throat.

"_July fourteenth_…" _'Isn't it around the twentieth? Wow, I don't even know what date it is. Shocker.'_ "Hey, that's pretty recent." Kit murmured that little comment then continued. "_Orders came from the boss today._ _Looks like we're in charge of investigating the remains of the Arklay Mountains laboratory."_ That made her pause and reread that last sentence. "'Remains of the Arklay Mountains Laboratory'? The hell? Becca, are there any labs around here?"

"I don't think so…" She frowned, having given up trying to search through things thoroughly whilst the other redhead was reading.

"Okay then… _We're moving in two groups, with us in the initial group, assigned to start checking what's left of the abandoned experiment._" Kit's eyes widened. _'Abandoned experiment…? Why do I have a really bad feeling about this?'_ "_July sixteenth. Unfortunately, the test production of B.O.W (Type-Y139) had to be suspended because of this investigation." _The unfamiliar name of _something_ rolled off her tongue a bit awkwardly. "What? Type Y139? How many types of this B.O.W thing are there?" The question was left hanging in the air, answered only by their simultaneous shrugs.

"_It's the same with Type-Y139. There's still so much we don't know about responses to the crustacean t-virus." _That gave her a little chill, but she was also intrigued. "Crustacean…T-virus?" She scratched her cheek, feeling a ball of coldness settle into the back of her mind, warning her instinctively of this. Becca didn't look like she felt it, so she kept it to herself, and shook it off. It was probably nothing.

"_There's a lot of interesting research left… Depending on the species and nurturing conditions, only minute doses of "t" bring about remarkable changes in solidity, size, multiplication of internal toxins and brain development. If these effects can be controlled, a powerful weapon could be produced. But the sudden development of the shell results in a corresponding fragility. Certain areas become exceedingly weak."_ Her eyes widened. "Ohhh Fuck. That means… those leeches… they…" She connected the dots in her mind, then shook her head and continued.

"_Problematically, one of these areas is the head carapace."_ At this, blue and brown eyes shone in the excitement of a discovery.

"Literally translated into layman's terms…" Rebecca spoke slowly.

"Aim for the head." They both finished, grins upon their faces.

"There's just a little bit more." Kit spoke, and the rookie nodded. "_This lab we are going to—were they pursuing the same research? It would certainly help to find data and samples that would help us in our research." _She reread that over slightly. Data? Samples? Exactly what kind of stuff was happening in that laboratory?

"_July nineteenth. The day is finally approaching… I am growing more anxious. The Raccoon City newspapers and TV stations are full of reports about the bizarre murders in the suburbs." 'Murders in the suburbs? I think I've heard of them… gory and messy, every single one of them. Victims apparently eaten, as well… I do believe we know what did them now.'_ She spoke in her mind, information having lain dormant inside her brain springing to life now that it was relevant. "_It can't be the virus. Can it? If it is… No. I can't think of that now. I have to concentrate on this investigation and make sure it goes smoothly."_ She flipped through the rest of the pages before shutting the book with a _clop_. "That's it. That was the last entry, and it looks like they started this diary just for this."

"…Well… what's that t-virus thing? And what are BOWs?" The cop asked, and was met with a sighing shrug.

"I don't know about the t-virus. But I have a feeling it's gonna be one hell of an important thing from now on. Maybe that's what happened to the passengers on this train. Maybe that's what the leeches are—BOWs. infected with the virus. Maybe even those dogs were infected. And BOWs. are… Bio-Organic-Weapons." She rambled off thoughtfully, slipping the book into her backpack along with a large-ish folder. You never know, right? There seemed to be quite a few documents strewn about and she didn't want to leave any of them behind.

"How do you figure all of that? And how do you know that?" The woman asked, trying to sort through the top bunk's mess only to sigh and take a seemingly random box of handgun bullets as Kit took a green herb, remembering what Billy had said to her and the properties of the plant.

"Well, you see, there must be _something_ that is making the corpses walk and undead dogs hungry for flesh. And something's off about those leeches, obviously…" The teen trailed off, going over to the unmoving corpse and lifting the blankets, seeing a box-shaped mass that Rebecca had missed, and took it out from underneath the blanket, the stench of death and the leech's slime dulling to her nose. "And I don't know how I know what B. are. I just do."

The short-haired woman shuddered. "I still don't know how that can't bother you." She spoke, averting her eyes.

"I don't know either… It just doesn't. Come on, Billy and I didn't look around the room we were staying in, we probably missed something." The other redhead nodded and they exited the room, and went over to the room that had, for some reason, a typewriter in it.

When they entered it the first thing Kit noticed was that the luggage that had been tied to the underside of the bunk above hers and the ceiling rack above Billy's had come undone, and that had rendered the bunks useless. If they tried to clear the clutter it would only serve to muck up the messy floor even worse than it already was and make it difficult to walk around the tiny room.

"Wow. I didn't think there was that much stuff above _both_ our bunks…" Kit murmured, before spotting a paper atop the aforementioned clutter, and picked it up interestedly. It went without a saying that she would probably read some stuff aloud, but she glanced back to Rebecca, who rolled her eyes.

"I can read it over after you're done. You read so well I find it impossible to concentrate on anything else but whatever you're saying."

"Ah. Understood." She nodded seriously, and as the short-haired redhead got to work, her brown eyes started scanning the paper.

It was stained with blood, and some sections—or letters, sometimes even words, were illegible.

_Investigation Orders_

_Eight miles north of Raccoon City, in the Arklay Mountains, lies our comp ny's Management Training Facility. _

_It was shut down years ag ._

_Now, w are conducting a preliminary tudy into the re-opening of the faci ities._

_First Investigation Unit is alre dy on-site and opening th invesi ation._

_I want yo r team to provide suppo t._

_The following orders re _

_Will m Birk and_

_1st I ves gat o Un t. _

The rest was torn and shredded beyond reading, the scent of old blood sticking in her nostrils from the paper which she held gingerly. The metallic stench didn't make her throat hurt or anything—she remembered having nosebleeds that were really bad in her youth… The smell of blood hadn't really bothered her since.

She could guess a few of the terms, such as the man's first name—William, most likely—and the rest of some of the words. _'There's… A laboratory in the woods, here, somewhere? A management training facility? And we have an estimate of where it is…' _"Rebecca, tell me… How far and which direction are we from Raccoon?" Her jaw clenched, making any inquiries the short-haired redhead had die in her throat instantly. When you so someone with that face, you knew it meant they weren't looking for wordplay.

"We're about… I'd have to say, three, four miles north-west-ish from Raccoon City… Why? What's wrong?"

She was passed the paper, and as she tried to fill in the blanks, her eyes widened. "…This isn't good."

"No wonder I thought this was part of some bigger picture. Umbrella's involved, but why would they be…?" She trailed off, a flash in her mind making it a little clear. "Of course… This investigation unit was being sent to the Management Training Facility for a _reason_, Rebecca."

The blue-eyed woman looked nervous at the younger redhead's odd behavior. Was she okay, or did something offset her mood that she missed. "Do you know what for, though?"

"No. Not completely. It's like a puzzle with the pieces missing, but I'm far too determined to let it go be that way." She gave a little laugh. "I think I know where this train is headed." Rebecca looked at her watch, and sure enough, they were headed northeast—towards where the blood-stained paper had said the facility was. "I'm right, aren't I?" She spoke quietly, coming down from her little high of euphoria from having that brilliant flash of odd happiness spike in her brain, going over the small memory she had dug up once more as her stomach gave a grumble. She poked it, and sighed.

"…I think you are. But you might not be. We don't know."

"That's true… I'm sorry for the odd way of how I'm acting. I think it's because I haven't had any food, really, except dried fruit and a few crackers, a little water. My stomach burned right through it."

"You're hungry?" Rebecca asked, and opened a pouch, pulling out a wrapped rations bar and a few strips of jerky. She handed them to the girl, and then sat on the messy floor, as did Kit.

She munched for a while, making a face at the taste of the jerky and bland rations bar. "Thank you. I tend to get a little… weird when I get hungry, sometimes. Probably because my brain constantly needs fuel, I think so much and for so long each day that it's used to a great deal of energy to be used." She explained.

"Oh." She blinked. "It kind of makes sense. That and you're still a developing teenager… You need more calories than someone like me would need."

She nodded. "Yup!" And she finished off the food. "Thanks for wasting such a precious resource on me. I just… I guess my mind went all happy and loopy a little bit there. I remembered something, even though it's a little thing."

Rebecca looked at her a little oddly. "What is it?"

"I remember the first time I read a medical textbook." She spoke simply. "It was on viruses, and anatomy. It broadened my horizons. I guess it slipped my mind until now…" She smiled, as if she had the book right there, and she could almost _feel_ the smooth, cold cover beneath her artistically-inclined fingers. "Ah, well. It's no matter. I guess it will only help me out a little." She stood up, and Rebecca followed her lead.

"It's not much… Can you feel like there's anything else to remember?" She asked, concerned.

The younger redhead thought a moment, and then replied with a simple "Nope! The rest's gone, but I assure you, I may have lost my memories of where I came and who was there, but I haven't lost all my sanity. It takes quite a bit to crumble my analytical mind." She smiled, her speech becoming a bit more formal without even realizing it.

Ignoring this, Rebecca nodded. "You do seem strong. Come on, let's go."

Kit gave a look around the place, then returned her gaze to the woman's eyes, and nodded. "Yeah… I gotta get outta here. I need to…uh… get fresh air."

"Yeah. It's probably just being cooped up on this train, there's some strange smelling stuff in this train…"

They left the room, and kept down the hallway they had first met in. The corpse of a man lay underneath a broken window, two dog's corpses laying there.

"Two Cerberi… Well done, Rebecca. Maybe you shouldn't freeze up so often, ne?" Her eyes twinkled, and Rebecca rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"At least I didn't rush a zombie."

"…You're _never_ going to let me live that one down. I just know it." She muttered, and then bent down by the man's corpse. She saw the S.T.A.R.S patch on his left sleeve and sighed. "So… This is Edward, huh?"

"Yeah…" Rebecca looked anywhere but the corpse, even though the body had multiple wounds and had a sickly yellowish, almost papery white look and a pool of blood underneath it, she still could see his laughing face as he had told jokes at lunch in the R.P.D lunchroom.

"It's a corpse, Rebecca. A body. The Edward you once knew is gone forever—time to move on and face the nightmare before you." Kit spoke gruffly, and spotted something in his hand. Perhaps something he meant to give his friend before he died? She took his hand, and raised it, then started unfurling his fingers which were stiff from the rigor mortis.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" She heard the shrill, shocked voice of her companion behind her, and she sighed.

"There's something in his hand. Now if his bloody fingers would let go of it…" With one last hard pull, his pointer finger finally gave, the bone cracking with the force Kit had had to use to just move his joints. "Man, he must've been tense when he died!" She spoke to herself, and then looked at the box that was in his hand.

Her eyes softened. "Hey, Becca…" She got up and turned to the woman. "He… He was probably going to give you this before he, uh…" She took Rebecca's hand, and placed the box in it, curling the woman's fingers around it as best she could. "It looks like an old box, the colour is faded, but the bullets are new."

Rebecca's eyes teared up when she saw the last gift her friend meant to give her, but hadn't been able to. "Oh, Edward…" She whispered, and looked at the box. She opened it up carefully. There were thirty bullets inside the little box. She offered it to Kit, but the redhead shook her head.

"I'll get more ammunition, Rebecca, I don't need it. It was his gift to you, not me." She refused until the older redhead quit trying, several or eighth time, and finally just poured the bullets into her pouch, fitting a few into the clips she had prepared.

During this, Kit had gotten out her clips and was digging through her pockets, counting how many bullets she had left. A trickle of sweat went down her neck.

She only had forty-five bullets. That was dangerously low, especially when a handgun did so very little damage to these monstrosities. "Hey, how many bullets do you have, Rebecca?"

The older redhead sighed, as she quickly and accurately counted the bullets. "Seventy-two. Why?"

"'Cause I only have forty-five." She sighed. "I'll be fine, I just… I gotta be more careful where I aim, I guess."

"Your aim isn't bad, Kit… it's pretty good, for someone who has next to no training." She smiled.

The other redhead gave a blank face, making the smile falter. "Thanks for the reassurance, but I'm being realistic. You're trained. I'm not. Your aim has been nitpicked upon—mine hasn't." She sighed. "Just…Just never mind." Her mind started going a little fuzzy. The smell of rotten flesh was pressing in on her, and it was starting to make a fog in her mind as it stuck in her nostrils. "I just need some air. The smell of the bodies… it's making me a little dizzy. But I'm fine, I assure you, it's just like a light fog on my mind. It will go away once we get a little fresh air, and then I'll be right as rain."

Rebecca nodded, and they continued down the hallway, and she passed over the door that had a plaque that said 'Conductor's Room' on it. Obviously, she'd tried it before, and had found it locked. She went on to the door at the end, that would most likely lead to the controls of the train. A corpse was slumped against the wall, flesh brutally torn all over, so much that the long-haired redhead couldn't deduce if he had been a young man or a middle-aged man.

As Rebecca tried to move it, Kit sighed. "It's locked." She went over to the device on the wall. "Fuck. We need a keycard to open it. And… We need the main power to power the keycard reader."

The two exchanged glances. There was no other option than to go up on the roof of the fifth car, and fix the power. They couldn't stop the train or do anything until they did that.

"Let's get you into the fresh air," The medically trained woman spoke worriedly, as she looked her younger companion over. She looked a bit pale, and her eyes were starting to display her discomfort.

"Yeah… Probably a good idea…" The teen was able to murmur as she dizzily followed behind the cop, to the doors between that car and the next, where the fresh air was. If that didn't help, she'd have to pop a few painkillers, because the throb of a headache was beginning to form from both the unprotected use of firearms and the currently subtle stress of the entire situation.

As she hung out the doorway, braced against the door and Rebecca holding her arm, she did start to feel much better. Like a layer of cotton had been taken off of her face on a warm summer day, as the rain dampened her, and stung where it hit due to the speed of the train. After She had opened her eyes and nodded to Rebecca, the rookie pulled her in.

"Ahh, refreshing!" She smiled, shaking her head like a dog because her hair had gotten slightly damp, surprisingly she didn't get soaked, mostly because the train made it so that most of the rain didn't get at her. "Gotta love the rain." She smiled happily, and then the look dropped from her face.

"Hey, Rebecca?" She started to get that gleam from earlier in her eye as the conductor and three more of his flesh-hungry brethren stumbled closer.

Rebecca grabbed her arm and pushed her behind her. "Oh, no you don't. Billy's already gonna kill you for pulling _that_ stunt earlier."

The girl sighed. "Fine. Just let me get a clear shot at them." She aimed carefully, Rebecca in a crouching position as she aimed her gun below the other redhead's firing range. "Fire when I say now."

She lined up the shot carefully, and pulled the trigger, the gun going back a little, then she quickly righted it and pulled it again, and after the third shot it died. She quickly took aim at the other two and dealt with them just as quickly. The conductor one was fresher and faster, she cursed in her mind. "Hey, Becca?"

"Yeah?" The woman crouching in front of her asked.

"Kneecap, now!"

_BANG! _The rookie shot at the kneecap without question, and the zombie fell to the floor. The cop gasped as she was yanked up—and then practically _hauled_ across the entire car, to the door, thrown in and then Kit followed, the conductor wobbling a bit more clumsily behind them.

"Good shot." She panted, heart beating hard.

"That was some strength." Rebecca spoke, looking Kit over.

"A slight burst of adrenaline. Nothing more, nothing less. Quite helpful—!" She squeaked as the door opened behind her.

"Get down!" Rebecca shouted in a panic, slightly fumbling with her gun as the younger redhead ducked—practically throwing herself to the floor with her heart leaping into her throat, the conductor zombie having followed them into the car.

BANG! The shot had been lucky, and it hit him right in the center of the head. He crumpled to the area between the two cars, and with an angry kick Kit sent him careening off the edge, off the widely-spaced safety guide bars for the civilian's use, and gave a scowl at the space where she had seen him last.

"Fucking conductor zombie. He was a fresh son-of-a-bitch, that's for sure. Not quite as rotted." Rebecca nodded to the younger redhead's small rant, and then pulled Kit up even though the girl protested, grumbling that she was fine and could get up well enough on her own.

"So, rotted zombies good, fresh zombies bad?" Rebecca asked, and Kit chuckled and nodded.

"Yuppers, pretty much. Seems that the fresher they are, the more powerful they are. The physical condition of the body probably makes a difference, too…We better get back to Billy and tell him about the door being locked." She started walking ahead when Rebecca's gloved hand clapped onto her shoulder, halting her quick steps.

"And that you rushed a zombie."

Kit pulled a face and sighed. "…Uhh, yeah… _That_ too."

--

Billy sighed, looking over nervously at the flaming table. _'Should I put that out? Or leave it there… Choices, choices…'_

He heard footsteps on the stairs and he spun around, gun out.

Kit, with an amused smile held her hands up, a warm laughing tone coming through with her first words. "It's us, Billy. Don't get all jumpy."

Rebecca had stood stock still when he had aimed at them, but he gave a laugh and lowered his gun. "Sorry. I was kinda thinking on if we should put that," He pointed to the still flaming table, "out."

"Nah, it's fine. Right underneath the wood there's gonna be metal, so there's no problem there. Plus the rain's soaked the carpet around it. It's not going to go anywhere, it'll burn itself out." Kit spoke after a moment of looking it over.

"…Alright then." He murmured.

Kit had walked back and Rebecca placed a strong hand on her shoulder, and she sighed.

"Tell him."

Billy tilted his head to the side. "Err……Tell me _what_?"

"Uhm…" Rebecca's hand squeezed. "Ow! Ow! Okay, I'm telling him, sheesh!" She peeled off the grip the other redhead had on her. "Billy, in a car down there, we were killing some zombies because… well… they were in our way. I didn't want to waste any more bullets, so…"

"So… What?" He asked cautiously.

She sighed, with an irritated edge, because Rebecca's stare was practically burning into her back. "Fuck the explanation. I rushed at a zombie and pushed him over."

It was silent, until Billy whispered, "What?"

"I was careful." She spoke. "I understand if you're mad, but it was for the best. We need ammunition."

A small smile came onto his face. "All right, kid, but don't ever do it again." He walked up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Unless it's for my survival," She drawled in conclusion.

"Yeah, pretty much."

She gave a laugh, and Rebecca rolled her eyes. She did think that Billy would be scared she would do it again, or even angry she had even done that. Or angry at her because she didn't try to stop the young woman from pulling that stunt.

His hand dropped from her shoulder. "Did you guys find anything? Did you get into the control room?"

"No." The eighteen-year-old sighed, reloading her gun.

"It was locked, unfortunately." The teen drawled, kneeling down to make sure her shoelaces were tightly tied.

"Great. Just perfect…" He groaned.

"However," The teen interjected as she stood, "We know how to get the main power on as well as get that automatic door downstairs working."

"Good. How?" He asked quizzically, and Kit gave a nervous laugh.

"Umm… We kinda have to go up on the roof…" Her hand rubbed the back of her neck. "It's not that bad, it's just up that ladder out that window, and till we get to the switch. No big deal."

His face turned hard. "You're _not_ going out there."

'_Wow… Okay, note to self; Billy is a bit protective of me… It might be a bad or good thing. That and he's not going to forget this little incident any time soon. Shiiiit.' _Her inner anime character sweatdropped, but on the outside she nodded. "I agree with you wholeheartedly on that, Billy. Hmm… Which of us has the shoes that have the best tread…?"

--

After a few minutes of comparing their shoes, the teen and man looked at the rookie, gleams in their eyes. She kept putting her boot back on for a second; unaware of their identical plans forming in their brains. Of course, that was until she looked up and immediately had a lump of apprehension form in the pit of her stomach.

"No. Just no. There is nothing you can do that will make me go up there!" She glared, hands on her hips.

"But if I were to go up there, I'd slip off like _that_." She snapped, conveying exactly how long she'd be up on the roof with her shoes. "My shoe's tread isn't that good." Kit drawled, and shrugged. "I don't want to die just yet, and not to mention your feet are much smaller than mine so I can't put on your boots. Don't even suggest it."

"And my boots are old. The tread on them is nearly worn off." Billy pointed out. "You have the only boots with tread that would let you stay up there."

Rebecca sighed. "…Fine. Keep your radios on, I'm going up there." She clicked in a button and then hit another. "There. My radio will be transmitting until I undo that." She headed to the window, shuddering at the cold rain as she held her hand out.

"The rain feels good, doesn't it?" The Masagobi spoke happily, smiling. Rebecca looked at her like she was a nut, and Billy arched an eyebrow, eyes glittering with amusement.

"No, not really… It's really cold." The older redhead muttered, before grabbing ahold of the ladder, using the window as a foothold, and then scrambled up it, already soaked.

"Be careful!" The masculine shout came, and she smiled.

'_Seems like Billy isn't such a bad guy, like Kit said. Ugh… This is freaking cold. How can she like rain like this?'_ She kept going, carefully planting her foot on the roof of the train before moving the other one. She shielded her eyes with her hand, against the stinging needles of cold rain. She soon came to a hole in the roof.

"The heck…?" She wondered, looking down at the ragged edges. She had no idea what could have done _that_ to the metal roof of a train, but she didn't really want to know. And she certainly didn't want to meet whatever it was.

She carefully went around the hole and went to the panel that had a wire that looked to be almost clipped with a pair of wire cutters, or something, and looked around it. _'There it is!'_ She flipped the switch, and then took hold of the two wires carefully, mindful of the sparking ends.

"I hope this works." She muttered to herself before connecting the two ends of the thick wire. As went to place it down in the spot where it would lay usually, some oddly familiar slime swelled up around the wires, making her start.

"Huu-WAHH!" She shrieked as the slime pushed her backwards, into the hole. She wind-milled her arms to try and stay on the roof of the train, but it was in vain. All the breath whooshed out of her lungs as her back made contact with the wet wooden floor.

"_Rebecca!" _Billy's voice was heard, then a fainter-sounding _"Hey, what are you—!"_ Made it apparent that Kit had snatched the radio the two were currently sharing.

"_Oi, Becca! What happened?!" _Kit spoke with a stern, concerned tone. _"Hey! Do we have to come after you?"_

"N…no… I-I'm fine." She panted, regaining her breath after she had blinked away the darkness edging her vision and the spots in her vision, and had partially recovered. "I uh… I just fell through a hole in the roof. I… I don't know what happened."

"_You might've fallen. Or something up there pushed you."_ Kit spoke into the receiver, and then a _"Hey!"_ broke out as Billy snatched the radio back after some apparent attempts. A clink made it sound like it was placed down on a surface—most likely a table.

"_Just leave it there."_

"…_Fine. Rebecca, look around the room. Is there anything of use?"_ The redhead certainly got straight to the point, the Chambers woman had to admit as she struggled to sit up, her back aching already._ "Oh yeah… Are you all right? It mustn't have been that high of a fall, but…"_

"Yeah, I'm fine." She rolled her eyes. "Umm… Oh! It looks like I'm in a, err… rest place? Maybe it's where the staff could go to get coffee and some dishes. I don't know… some of the place is blocked off from the debris from the ceiling. It looks like a service lift, like a dumb waiter. There's… Ooh! Two boxes of ammo on the counter. Those are for you, Kit. You need the bullets."

"_Thanks. That'll have to wait until we find you, though."_

"Right. There's a…key, it looks like, over on the other side of the room—it _is_ really cramped in here—and a white spray can." She got herself to her feet, wincing at the dull, phantom pain on her back. "I think I'm going to have a bruise on my back." She stated, going over to the door.

"_That's not good… I'll take a look at it later." _Kit said, and she said it like she was a little preoccupied. A clink of metal made it clear why. _"I do need the bullets, though. I just did a recount. Thirty rounds. That's just two reloads… If there's too many infected on this train, I'm in trouble."_

"_Hey," _A rustling sound made it obvious someone was looking in Kit's backpack and that the girl had taken it off. _"Are these new documents?"_

"_Yeah. You might want to read them. They might explain a little."_

While this was going on, Rebecca had been prodding herself, making sure everything was fine, and then went over to the door. Taking hold of the handle, she jiggled it. "The door's stuck."

"_Great." _The dry, sarcastic voice came, a slight groan coming through the speaker as well. _"Hey… try jiggling it harder. I think I heard a noise. I might be able to find where you are."_

She tried harder, and a loud _"HOLY SHIT!"_ Made her jump.

A knock at the door made her leap back. "W-who?!"

"It's me." Kit had left Billy over at the other end of the room with the radio, obviously, because the _clomp_ of his boots weren't heard along with the much-softer-than-normal _thumps_ of the converse knockoffs. There was a noise, and then another swear from the longhaired redhead. "Well, shit. It's stuck from this side too. So close, yet so far."

"Err… I think something's stuck in the keyhole. I need something thin and skinny, and probably sharp to get it out."

"Like a knife?" Billy shouted up, hearing it from the radio, and too preoccupied with skimming through the few documents they had found to click the button in to respond through the device, as they had been doing.

"No, no… Something thinner than a combat knife."

"Mine's thin, but it's not _that_ much thinner." Kit acknowledged thoughtfully. "Well, it looks like you'll have to stay in there for a little while. You gonna be okay in there?"

"Yeah. It's safe. There's nothing in here, it seems pretty safe… Plus I need to rest. You'd be surprised how much energy you can spend walking on top of a train in the rain while it's moving." Rebecca heard the slightly muffled _clomp_ing of the man's boots as he walked up.

A feminine chuckle mixed with a chortle of Billy's came through, he had obviously caught up. "Alright. Be careful Becca."

A laugh came from her lips. "I think it's you guys that have to be careful."

"Okay then. See if the lift works. It might be useful…" A sound of footsteps indicated that the younger redhead had turned around suddenly. "Billy! Quit munching on the dried fruit, we don't know how long that will have to last us!"

'_She sounds like she's scolding a little kid.'_ Rebecca mused with a grin. She could imagine the expressions on their faces.

"Okay… I get the munchies when I read though…" He gave a slight whine.

"Oh well. If you keep that up you're going to get no more of the food." Rebecca, although she couldn't see the teen's face, knew she was rolling her eyes.

"Aww…" And now she was imagining Billy pouting, both their eyes twinkling in amusement.

"Come on, let's go. Keep in contact, Becca! We'll keep you posted too." The longhaired redhead called through the door before shouldering her backpack and heading with Billy down the stairs.

'_Okay then…'_ Rebecca thought with a sigh, the atmosphere suddenly chilled and empty now that the two had vacated the area, leaving her alone in the somewhat safe room.

She rubbed her arms before she picked up the key and read the tag on it. _'Hey! This goes to that door that was locked!'_ She then went over to the lift, and smiled a little when she saw it was on, and operational. She put the key on it and then clicked the 'send' button, and hoped that they would get it soon.

* * *

**K.L.K- And END CHAPPIE! (throws hands up in happiness)**

**Claire-…Woooow. Why'd it take so long?**

**K.L.K- School… Allergies… I went to Solo and Ensemble again to sing a solo WHILE I was suffering terrible allergies…**

**Claire- (claps hands together excitedly) Ooh! I nearly forgot you had to go to the middle school one again this year! How was it? What rating did you get?!**

**K.L.K- (eyebrow raises) Huh. Didn't know you would get so excited… It was a Class A solo… AND I GOT A ONE!**

**Claire- SQUEEEEE! **

**K.L.K- (stumbles away, eyes wide and her ears bleeding) Ow!**

**Claire- (laughs nervously and rubs the back of her neck) Hehe?**

**K.L.K- (shakes it off, as does the rest of the characters in the room) Anyway, that and I wrote this when I was a little out of it, and it was over a long period of time, so I've spent a few days just nitpicking at parts of it, adding bits and taking them away, completely rewriting them… Just whenever I wanted to.**

**Rebecca-… So I'm trapped in that room?**

**K.L.K- Yeah. Oh! I'm going to have to play RE0 tomorrow, because for the life of me I can't remember much. Probably because it's crammed with info of REmake. But oh well… I found the extension to my GameCube controller, so I can play even if I'm still up against my headboard and on my laptop at the same time! YESH!**

**Billy- Good… And apparently I get the 'munchies'?**

**K.L.K- Well, when I read sometimes I have to snack on something or chew gum otherwise my mind strays more than usual. I just thought that would be funny. Think about it—you, rough-and-tough Billy Coen getting the **_**munchies**_** when you read. I thought it was fitting, somehow.**

**Billy- (mutters) Just because you wanted a little laugh at the end of the chapter…**

**K.L.K- (nods absently as she rubs at her temples) Yuppers, pretty much…**

**Wesker- Do you have a headache? You've been rubbing at your temples quite a bit…**

**K.L.K- Just sinus pressure. I'll probably be coughing all night but meh, as long as I don't get woken up by it I'll be fine. My allergies are acting up, as I've said before, and it's aggravating.**

**Wesker- Ah. I see.**

**Leon- Aren't you taking something for it?**

**K.L.K- Well, today I woke up at eleven am, with the late start I didn't see the point. Usually I take either a Zyrtec, or a Benadryl, and sometimes a Mucinex DM to help the sinus pressure…**

**Claire- Jeeze… Didn't your parents get you the allergy shots?**

**K.L.K- (shakes head) Nah, that was my half-sister that you're thinking of. Mom says she should've gotten me the shots, but I think I can make do with Benadryl.**

**Claire- (shrugs) If you can…**

**Wesker- K.L.K, look at the word count.**

**K.L.K- O-kayyyy… Sure. (looks) HOLY SHIT!**

**Wesker- … (raises eyebrow)**

**K.L.K- Okay! It's over six thousand and four-hundred now! Time to end this before it goes on for much longer. Please—!**

**Bitorez- (Walks in and snatches his eye off the coffee table in front of the couch, grumbles) Damn kids… (looks at Readers)… Review. (leaves promptly muttering something about finding whoever stole his eye)**

**K.L.K-… Thank you, Chief Bitorez Mendes… (Is a bit lost on why he showed up just then)**


End file.
